The Sea of Monsters: Annabeth's Story
by Kittycat32
Summary: No one ever knew what my side of the story was, and I thought that I, Annabeth Chase, was worthy enough to get a version of my side of The Sea of Monsters. I mean, after all, how on earth would Percy have survived without me? Part 2 to Annabeth's Story.
1. I Now Feel Like A Stalker

**Holy crap guys! 1,000 views on Tuesday! Holy HADES, ZEUS, POSEIDON and every other god! You guys are toooootally awesome!**

** xmarkersarecoolx: Luved ur first review! And I AM! Doing all the books, along with some other short stories :D Hope that made ur day! But, for The Titan's Curse, I am mostly going to do Thalia's POV just because I don't really know what happened to Annabeth through most of it. But she will be in there!**

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**I Now Feel Like A Stalker**

I'd been on the run for a few days now, only my backpack holding my belongings. The horrible nightmares about Camp Half-Blood had become too much to bear, night after night of watching Thalia's tree slowly dying, watching monster after monster attack my friends and siblings.

Currently I was taking a side trip to pick up Percy, because he was along the way. I walked along New York City's streets in the early morning cruising along Manhattan's alleys, to stay out of sight from curious mortals. Unfortunately, that meant I was in sight of some other, more dangerous creatures.

I was walking behind what I hoped to be Percy's apartment building, looking for a fire escape to climb and see if I could recognize anyone inside.

"_Groowwllll."_ The noise came from my left, and I spun around to find the largest hellhound I had ever seen. It was also the one who drooled the most of the ones I had ever seen, but that wasn't really the point.

I gasped in surprise, taking my trusty knife from its sheath on my belt, the bronze blade flashing in the early morning sunlight.

The hellhound leaped, it's paws the size of plate, and they hit me in the shoulders, knocking me to the ground. The breath was knocked out of me as I hit the dirty asphalt.

It's drool slopped on my face, knocking me out of my stupor, and I kicked my legs up, hitting its stomach and flipping it over my head.

I jumped up, slashing at the thing until all that was left was a disintegrating figure. A last paw reached out and gave a swipe, making claw marks in my jeans. _Oh dang it, these were my favorite jeans!_ I thought.

The hellhound was just golden dust now, flitting away in the breeze. I glanced up at the side of the building, spotting easily the old fire escape. It looked rickety and unsafe, but I wasn't just going to walk into the building and demand to see Percy.

That would be just weird.

I grabbed onto the ladder, swiftly climbing floor by floor, checking windows to see if I recognized something. I stopped on the fourth floor, peering in and seeing an unconscious Percy, drooling almost as much as the hellhound, stretched across his bed. I flipped on my Yankees cap, instantly invisible.

Percy began twitching, his eyes furrowing, muscles tensing. Then his eyes flew open in terror and he bolted into a sitting position, breathing heavily. He glanced around the room, and I realized that I could still see my shadow. I cursed my stupidness silently, and I backed behind the wall, out of eyesight.

I waited a few seconds until I looked back again. A knock came at his door, the sound of his mother's warped voice through the glass window, probably indicating that breakfast was ready. Percy jumped out of bed and began to…

Oh, gods.

Was he really…?

Oh, yep, he's getting dressed.

I jumped back, my face warm, and I felt like a stalker, those people who stared into your windows.

I heard his door slam, and peeked back inside. No one.

I opened the window, wincing at every squeak, expecting Percy to come bursting in at any second, but nothing happened. I climbed in, doing a quick scan of his room.

It was just as messy, if not messier then his cabin at Camp Half-Blood. Clothes and random items were strewn everywhere, and I knew this was probably his mother's worst problem with Percy.

I cracked open the door, following the sounds of voices down the hall until I came to a normal kitchen, Percy scarfing down blue waffles and eggs. My stomach growled, my last meal being the peanut butter and fluff sandwich I had packed at my house, last afternoon.

"-Wait a minute," said Percy around a giant waffle piece. "I thought we were packing me up for camp tonight."

Mrs. Jackson twisted her dishrag. "Ah, dear, about that… I got a message from Chiron last night."

I really hoped that message didn't have anything to do with my disturbing dreams, but I had a sinking feeling they were connected.

Percy's face fell. "What did he say?"

"He thinks… it might not be safe for you to come to camp just yet. We might have to postpone."

"Postpone? Mom, how could it not be safe? I'm a half-blood! It's like the only safe place on earth for me!"

My heart sank. Would his mother not let Percy come with me?

"Usually, dear. But with the problems they're having…"

"What problems?" Percy looked on the edge of a full-blown panic attack now.

"Percy… I'm very, very sorry. I was hoping to talk to you about it this afternoon. I can't explain it all now. I'm not even sure Chiron can. Everything happened so suddenly."

The kitchen clock chimed seven thirty.

"Seven thirty dear. You should go. Tyson will be waiting,"

"But-"

"Percy, we'll talk this afternoon. Go on to school."

Percy jumped up, grabbing his bag. Just before he left the house he turned. I had just slipped a waffle into my pocket when he said, "Mom, this problem at camp. Does it… could it have anything to do with my dream about Grover?"

Mrs. Jackson wouldn't look up. "We'll talk this afternoon, dear. I'll… explain as much as I can."

Percy stepped outside, and I slipped out the door.

My shadow showed against the wall, and Percy frowned, but I quickly slid into an alley.

He shrugged, and walked off.

I looked like I was going to school with Percy.

**FIRST CHAPTER!**

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	2. I Save His Butt AGAIN

**First chapter done, like 20 more to go :P Checked email today to find ten more Fanfic emails for reviews and others :D Luv u guys!**

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**I Save His Butt AGAIN**

Percy's school day was, well I can only explain it as one word. "Interesting."

Meriwether College Prep wasn't your average school. Most classes had beanbags instead of chairs, (something I didn't mind much,) and wannabe rockstar-like teachers with various band names on their shirts. They were bands I've never heard of too, ones like The Advil Monkeys, or Armor For Sheep. I didn't even want to know what their songs were called.

Percy's first class was English, where they were currently studying The Lord of the Flies, a book where a bunch of children get stranded on an island and go crazy in the head.

For his final exam, the teachers sent them out into the recess yard for an hour with no supervision, which is not a smart move for a bunch of mentally disabled kids.

There ended up being a full tackle basketball game, two rock fights, and a wedgie competition between the seventh and eighth graders. It was actually a pretty good reenactment of the book, without the whole everyone goes savage and wacko, and a bunch of people die.

A guy with dog-like eyes, and not the cute kind, with shaggy black hair was obviously the main bully, even if he didn't look particularly big or strong. He had a confident aura around him, which I instantly disliked, the Ares Cabin kids. One front tooth as shipped, probably doing something idiotic and stupid.

I didn't pay much attention until the tormentor tried to give a wedgie to someone who was big and strong looking. I froze, even though no one could see me in my invisibility hat, and slowly raised my eyes to the large boy's face.

Instant terror and disgust flew through me, and my hand itched towards the knife on my belt. The thing was probably going to go on a frenzied rampage if the bully even put a finger anywhere near his underwear.

I could tell he was homeless, as most Cyclopes' were, abandoned by their parents as babies and forced to survive on their own, to feel the worst of nature's and human's cruelness, ending up hateful and evil themselves.

The flashback started immediately.

"_Is it this way?" pondered Grover at a crossroad. "No I think it's this way. Or is it?"_

_Thalia and Luke had their arms crossed impatiently, shifting every few seconds. We had been waiting for Grover to make up his mind for about five minutes. _

_Being seven, I was tired, leaning slightly into Thalia, her inviting warmth soothing against the biting wind. _

"_Thalia?" I asked, looking up at her tall form. "Where are we going?"_

_She looked down, her eyes softening. "Somewhere safe, or so Grover says."_

_Grover was oblivious, playing his reed pipes in some sort of direction song. "Will we still live together?" I asked._

_Thalia, lifted me from the ground, putting my on her back. "Sure, kid, of course."_

_I smiled, her spiky hair prickling my nose. _

"_I think it's this way!" spoke Grover. _

_He pointed down the road to a small town where looming, apparently abandoned buildings cast large, dark shadows. The sun was going down beside them, making the shadows longer and more distorted as the day ended. _

"_Think, or you're sure?" asked Luke crossly._

_Grover hesitated. "Sixty-five percent sure."_

"_Oh, that's reassuring," whispered Luke into Thalia's ear._

_She and I giggled softly. Grover appeared not to have heard, or if he did he chose to ignore it._

_Grover trotted forward, his confident gait forcing Luke and Thalia to speed up from our leisurely walk. I bounced on Thalia's back, the wind filling my ears with a soft whistle, and blowing the hair from my face._

"_Hey, goat boy, wait up!" called Thalia._

_Grover turned, a cross look on his face. "I told you not to call me goat boy!"_

_Thalia laughed. "But it's true! Half-goat," she gestured to his lower half. "Half-boy." She indicated is upper half. "Goat plus boy equals goat boy."_

_Grover and Luke cracked a smile. I rested my head on Thalia's shoulder, my eyes drooping. _

_Luke glanced at me, and checked the time on his watch. "It's getting late, we should find a place to crash."_

_I chimed in with an agreeably, "Mh-hm!" _

_Thalia lowered me from her back. "You're a big girl, right Annabeth? I bet you couldn't walk the rest of the way."_

_I straightened up. "Yeah I can! I'm the strongest seven-year-old in the world!"_

_Her eyes twinkled with laughter, and we strutted down the road, Grover sniffing into various buildings, looking for a safe one._

"_This one seems safe," he announced. _

_It was a regular building, with warped windows and old red bricks._

_When Grover tried to push the door open, it fell in, hitting the floor with a thud, and dust flew around us. Our eyes watered and we coughed, waving the dust away from our faces, waiting until it settled. _

"_I don't think anyone lives here," coughed Luke._

_Dust was everywhere, almost an inch thick on the ground, and various furniture covered with white sheets spread throughout the room. _

_Grover played a wind song on his pipes and a breeze swished through the room, lifting the dust from the floor and sheet covered objects, and whisking it away to some unknown place._

_Luke walked over to a sheet, lifting it away to reveal an old-style flower couch, where he plopped onto it, stretching out._

_Grover peeked under each one until he found a particularly fancy one, where he immediately started to chew on the armrest. "Oh, a Marcel Breuer! This place has taste!" Then he blissfully chewed it to his hearts content._

_Thalia and Luke laughed. "Grover, you're one of a kind," said Luke._

_I sat on the floor below the couch, and watched Thalia practice fighting with her spear. "Hey, Luke, come practice with me!" she called over._

_Luke pushed himself up from the couch, taking his sword from its sheath and walked towards Thalia. "No electrifying this time!" he said._

"_But that takes the fun out of it!" protested Thalia._

"_Yeah," said Luke sarcastically. "So much fun to be shocked by a freaky static girl." He waggled his eyebrows at Thalia. _

_Thalia smiled, flipping her spear into the air lazily. "Fine, fine, no shocking, if you want to play the easy way."_

_Luke rolled his eyes, glancing at me. "Hey, Annabeth, be on my team. We'll kick Thalia's butt!"_

_My tiredness forgotten, I jumped up, unsheathing my knife and running to Luke. He ruffled my hair with his hand and looked at Thalia. "Ready, Thalia?"_

"_Hey, hey, no fair! Two against one! Goat boy, get over here!" said Thalia._

_Grover glanced up from his meal of the chair. "But this is a delicacy!"_

"_Yeah, yeah, you can get back to it later. Come on!" _

_Grover sighed, giving his chair a reluctant look. "Fine. But only for a little bit." He took out his reed pipes and began to play a song that sounded like the Dora theme song. I didn't like the show, and my dad would have to drag me out of the room while I screamed, "It's right behind you, Dora! Just turn around!"_

_Then the ground under us began growing grass that tried to wrap around our ankles. I cut mine off while Luke fought off Thalia with his sword. Even just fooling around, they were good. Each move was planned out and executed perfectly. Luke, an amused smile as he blocked strikes from Thalia's spear. _

_Thalia had lights in her eyes, like mini captured lightning bolts, her electric blue eyes in deep contrast. Her face was a mix of concentration and laughter._

"_Retreat!" yelled Luke, dramatically holding his shoulder in pretend pain, where Thalia had poked it with her spear._

_We raced away down the hall, the sound of victory cries coming from Thalia and Grover._

"_Okay, Annabeth, here's what we're going to do. Hide and wait until they come after us, then surround them." He pointed to a spot well hidden in the darkness, large enough for a seven-year-old to hide without being seen. "When I cry out, that's the signal to attack. They should run by you, and we can beat them."_

_I nodded enthusiastically, and crouched in the shadowed corner. Luke's footsteps faded down the hall, and everything went silent. Then the sound of pounding feet reached my ears, and Thalia's form thundered past, electric spear in hand. Grover wasn't there, and I presumed he must have been going around a different way. About thirty seconds later, I heard a familiar cry of Luke's voice, and jumped up._

_I raced away, silent on my hunt for my friends. But something stopped me in my tracks._

"_Annabeth, come home with Daddy." The sound of my father's voice scared me. I had finally found people who accepted me for who I was. I didn't want to go back where people resented me. I crawled forward, knife in hand, and heard a strangled dry coming from a room to the left down the hall." No, Annabeth-_

"_Quite, hero." A thump echoed from the room, and silence resumed._

_I moved forward again, slowly, peeking around the corner to see my friends hanging over a giant pot. Not one of those steamer pots either. It was hot tub size, with green boiling liquid, something that didn't look particularly pleasant to be cooked in. _

_Thalia was pale and seemed unconscious, while Luke and Grover fought to be free of their binding ropes. The giant figure standing over the pot held a wooden spoon the size of a canoe, stirring casually, while he muttered something under his breath._

_I crept into the room sneaking around into the shadows. Then I stepped on a creaky board._

"_Who's there!" demanded the Cyclops, spinning around and glancing wildly around the room with his one eye, a hideous color of vomit green, dirt and other unrecognizable things covering his face._

_His voice changed. "Annabeth, it's Daddy. Come here now. This isn't funny."_

_I stayed silent, barely breathing. The Cyclops shrugged and turned back to the pot. _

_That's when I charged. The Cyclops whipped around, spoon raised, but I was quick. I brought my dagger down deep into his foot, and the Cyclops said a quick, "ouch!" and exploded into golden powder. I lowered my friends' rope, careful not to touch the green liquid. Grover fed Thalia some ambrosia, while Luke walked over to me._

"_Nice job, kid."_

I was startled back into present time as the bully tried to give a wedgie to the Cyclops.

It panicked, swatting the guy away with a sweep of his arm, tangling him in a child's tire swing.

"You freak! Why don't you go back to your cardboard box!" called the bully.

The Cyclops started crying, sitting on the jungle gym, leaving a butt-shaped mark for future kids to play on for generations.

"Take it back, Sloan!" yelled Percy.

He was _defending _the monster?

The bully, Sloan, sneered at Percy. "Why do you even bother, Jackson? You might even have friends if you weren't always sticking up for that freak!"

Percy's face turned red and I suppressed an urge to punch Sloan in the face. Even if Percy was protecting a monster, I was his friend, and I did not like someone who bullied my friends.

"He's not a freak," protested Percy. "He's just…" Percy's face fell. He couldn't think of anything.

Sloan and his friends laughed, a large group of about nine people, some with nametags, others with none. "Just wait until PE, Jackson. You are so dead," cried Sloan. 

The bell signaling the end of first period sounded, and the English teacher came out, announcing that the class had understood The Lord of the Flies perfectly, and that everyone passed.

Percy went to the Cyclops. "Come on, Tyson. I'll buy you an extra peanut butter sandwich for lunch."

Tyson sniffled. "I… I am a freak?" he asked, his brown eye streaming tears.

"No," Percy comforted. "Matt Sloan is the freak."

"You are a good friend. Miss you next year if…if I can't…" Tyson gulped.

The Cyclops seemed different from the one I met, more afraid, less evil, but I still didn't trust it.

"Don't worry, big guy, everything will be fine."

Tyson looked up, hopeful, and they walked off, back into school.

I followed, ending up in Percy's science exam. They were supposed to make something explode using the chemicals set in front of them. I leaned towards the names, easily finding combinations that would have created a reaction. Potassium permanganate with glycerin and water was a good, along with ammonium nitrate powder, ground zinc powder, and hydrochloric acid, but Tyson just knocked the whole container of chemicals into the trash, a puff of orange coming from it.

I guess either way worked.

The teacher called the hazardous waste removal squad, then congratulated Percy and Tyson for passing in the first thirty seconds.

I think this was a good school for Percy. Being clumsy got you good grades, I guess.

Next we went to social studies, the only seemingly normal class so far. Percy opened his binder to a picture of… me? It was when I went on vacation with my family to D.C. I was standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in a denim jacket and my Camp Half-Blood shirt and a bandana in my hair. I had totally forgotten I had sent that to him. But for him to print it out and put it in his social studies binder? That was just creepy.

Sloan snuck up behind him and ripped the picture from the rings.

"Hey!" protested Percy, reaching for it.

"No way, Jackson. Who is that? She is not your-"

"Give it back!"

Was Sloan about to say girlfriend? I mean, Percy was just a friend, right? There was nothing going on. Was there? He did have a picture of me in his folder, but I had also snuck into his room, even if I only meant to bring him back to camp.

Sloan passed around my picture to his buddies, to my extreme embarrassment, as they gawked at my picture. Seriously, couldn't Percy have a picture of like, Grover or something? I did not like my picture being shown to a bunch of strangers.

I had zoned out, following the picture with my eyes, trying to find an opening to steal it. Then they started eating it, to my revulsion, and sort of relief that it was gone from prying eyes.

"You're such a loser, Jackson. Good thing I'm gunna put you out of your misery next period," said Sloan.

Once again, I fought the strong urge to punch Sloan.

Class ended, and almost everyone was gone, and I decided to try and speak to Percy.

"Percy!" I hissed in his ear. He jumped and twisted around, getting the attention of a few students. I suppressed a groan. There was no way I was going to be able to talk to him now.

He shrugged it off, heading down the hall towards the gym. I wasn't paying attention as I followed Percy, and ended up in the boy's locker room. Not only did it smell disgusting, I was surrounded by a bunch of undressing guys. I slipped out the door as fast as I could, to avoid further scarring of my mind.

The dodgeball game started normally, the popular kids siding with the bullies, Percy and other less popular kids on the other team, a few hiding behind mats, others just frozen solid, scared.

Then the game started. Percy was hit immediately, right in the stomach. He doubled over, the breath knocked out of him, then fell onto the floor, looking dazed. It took a lot to get Percy off his feet, so I wondered who had the strength to throw a ball so hard.

The kids on the other side laughed. "Percy, duck!" yelled Tyson.

A ball whizzing at practically the speed of light came hurtling towards Percy, but he managed to roll away.

"Hey!" yelled Percy angrily. "You could kill somebody!"

Sloan's goons had grown. Why hadn't I seen it before? Read the signs, or at least there name tags. Everyone knew they tended to be either gory names like Gut Squishier, or old time country names like Bob. They were Laistrygonians.

"I hope so, Perseus Jackson! I hope so!" one named Joe Bob called back.

Six of the kids on the other size grew to about eight feet tall, sporting tattoos of snakes and hearts with the word "Mom" in them.

Sloan dropped his dodgeball in surprise. "Whoa! You're not from Detroit! Who…"

I resisted the urge to yell, "Well no duh, Sherlock!"

Kids began running towards the door, panicking. I wasn't sure what they saw through the Mist, but it must have been something like terrorists or maybe a gang, scary enough to make the guys scream like little children.

The doors shut tight with snap, locking us in the gym. The gym teacher was totally oblivious from the whole, "we are about to die scene," happening right behind his magazine.

"Let them go!" shouted Percy at the Laistrygonians.

One of them growled. "And lose our tasty mortals? No, Son of the Sea God. We Laistrygonians aren't just playing for your death. We want lunch!"

I groaned. Why couldn't Percy mix in a fight with vegetarian giants? Why did he have to go and find the worst possible monsters New York City? His bad luck just kept going on and on.

Joe Bob waved his hand, a bunch of dodgeballs appearing on the line. But theses weren't your average red rubber dodgeballs. They were bronze, flaming, those-are-going-to-leave-a-mark-on-my-soul balls of terror.

"Coach!" screamed Percy desperately. He didn't have Riptide with him. Oh, of all the luck.

"Yeah. Mh-hmm. Play nice," said the coach, getting back to his magazine.

Another monster threw a dodgeball at Percy, who dove to the side.

"Corey!" he yelled. Tyson grabbed a kid who was hiding behind the mat before it blew up into a bunch of tiny, flaming pieces.

"Run! The other exit!" screamed Percy at the other kids. They ran towards the locker rooms, but those slammed shut also.

"No one leaves until you're out! And you're not out until we eat you!" screamed Joe Bob.

I sighed. I was going to have to get into this fight soon. I was still tired from my run-in with the hellhound and walking around all day.

Another fireball of doom flew at Percy, and Tyson pushed him out of the way. The blast sent Percy flying, his clothes smoking.

I took this advantage to sneak up on other monsters, stabbing them with my knife and climbing up their backs in order to turn them into gold dust.

Only Joe Bob was left, and he was aiming toward Tyson, who had been knocked to the floor by a surprise hit.

"Stop! It's me you want!" yelled Percy.

That Seaweed Brain! The idiot! He had no weapon on him!

"You wish to die first, hero?" asked Joe Bob.

Then Percy charged. I started running towards Jim Bob at the same time. Whatever idiot plan Percy was planning, it wasn't going to work. I was going to have save him.

"My lunch approaches," said Joe Bob smugly.

Percy braced himself for the killer blow. I leaped into the air, stabbing the monster in the stomach, dust exploding around me. My Yankees cap fell off, and I put it in my pocket.

I turned to Percy, who was staring at me with an open mouth.

Sloan had the same expression. He tried to form words in his mouth, but to no avail. "That's the girl… That's the girl-"

I punched him in the face. Man, that felt good. I really hated bullies.

"And you," I said to him. "Lay off my friend."

The building was in flames and crumbling. Kids screamed in terror and ran around in circles of panic. Seriously, did they not see the holes in the wall to escape?

Percy came to his senses, finally. "Annabeth…How did you...How long have you…"

Even when he was lost for words, I understood what he was saying.

"Pretty much all morning." I put my knife back into its sheath. ""I've been trying to find a good time to talk to you, but you were never alone."

His face looked like he was watching me do the chicken dance. I rolled my eyes at him.

"The shadow I saw this morning… That was…" His face turned red.

I pleaded to the gods for him not say it aloud.

"Oh my gods, you were looking in my bedroom window?"

Oh, curse the gods. They never listened. My face reddened and I changed the subject. "There's no time to explain! I just didn't want to-"

To what? Use the front door? Oh, I should face it. I wanted to see his room, not that it was very appealing once I caught a glimpse. And besides, I didn't want to worry his mom by just randomly knocking on the door at, like, seven in the morning, 'Hey, I'm Annabeth, and I am just going to take Percy back to camp and go on another dangerous quest that's probably going to kill us.' Yeah. That'd go well.

The doors burst open. "There!" screamed an adult.

"Meet me outside," I said. I glanced disdainfully at Tyson. "You'd better bring him."

"What?" said Percy totally confused by now. He just didn't take surprise visits very well, especially after being attacked by cannibals.

"No time!" I glanced at the horde of adults streaming in. "Hurry!"

I put on my Yankees cap, disappearing from the eyes of curious teachers.

Slipping out of a hole in the side of the building, I walked to a street sign and waited.

Sure enough, Percy did a flying leap out of the same hole with Tyson racing behind him.

It was time to get back to camp.

**Okay, I had to do the Dora bit. "It's right behind you!" I used to get annoyed about that too, even if I didn't have to get dragged out of the room. **

**Hope I did the flashback well enough! The other one I did for the first book wasn't the best, so I tried to make up for it :P**

**Longer chapter, finally :) the first one was, like, two pages, so this is getting back to normal!**

**Review Please!**

**:D**


	3. Percy Teases Old Ladies

**I have no idea whats going on with FF lately, not letting me update or create a new story, so I can't make the Bianca story jsut yet. If you want to be able to update, when the error screen comes up, just replace the word "property" with the word "content" and it wil let you update. Hope that helped!**

**Heyyy Fanfictioners! Gotta love you guys for all the favorites, story alerts and author alerts! Makes me sooo happy :D**

**Also, I love it when you do reviews! I was checking my first story for the series of Annabeth's Story, and I got, like, 68 reviews! **

**Lets try for 100 this time! Hehe**

**Plus, be ready for ****The Short Immortal Life Of Bianca di Angelo**** to come out in the next few days!**

**Percy Teases Old Ladies**

Percy and Tyson caught up to me down a Church Street alley, and I pulled them away as a firetruck went by. Seriously, didn't anyone know street smarts? Oh, gods, what in the world was I saying? I sounded like as Grover said, "an old mama goat."

"Where'd you find him?" I gestured towards Tyson with disgust.

"He's my friend," said Percy with obvious anger.

Who befriends a Cyclops? Most people would run from scary one eyed monsters, not say, 'Hi, can I be your friend?'

I mean, Percy was one of my best friends. We've been through so much together. Even with our parents hating each other, I thought we made a good team. I'd missed Percy this year, no idiotic comments keeping me on my toes for a sarcastic response. Maybe I missed him even more then I'd like to admit, even to my own self. But that wasn't the point. He had chosen a Cyclops to hang out with in my absence, for the gods' sake.

"Is he homeless?" I asked.

"What does that have to do with anything? He can hear you, you know. Why don't you ask him?"

I was surprised. He was a young Cyclops. Most didn't learn how to speak until they were twenty. "He can talk?"

"I talk," said Tyson beside me. "You are pretty."

I was horrified. "Ah! Gross!"

Percy looked really angry now. He glared at me, then glanced at Tyson's hands. "Tyson," he said, surprised. "Your hands aren't even burned."

"Of course not," I muttered. "I'm surprised the Laistrygonians had the guts to attack you with him around."

Tyson seemed to be mesmerized by my hair. His hand lifted up to touch it, but I quickly slapped it away, resisting the urge to say, 'Don't touch me.'

"Annabeth, what are you talking about? Laistry-what?" asked Percy.

"Laistrygonians," I explained. "The monsters in the gym. They're a race of giant cannibals who live in the far north. Odysseus ran into them once, but I've never seen them as far south as New York before."

"Laistry-I can't even say that. What would you call them in English?" asked Percy.

I thought about that. "Canadians. Now come on, we have to get out of here."

"The police'll be after me," said Percy.

I rolled my eyes. Like mortal police could catch us. "That's the least of our problems. Have you been having the dreams?"

Percy was wary now. "The dreams… about Grover?"

I paled. What was wrong with Grover? "Grover? No, what about Grover?"

"I had a dream that Grover was running away from something, something big. He hid in a bridal shop, but the thing found him. It shouted, 'MIIIIINE!' and then I woke up. Why, what were you dreaming about?"

I thought back to my dreams, of monsters getting into camp, of Thalia's needles falling off and the tree drooping. "Camp. Big trouble at camp.

"My mom was saying the same thing! But what kind of trouble?"

I wished I knew. "I don't know exactly. Something's wrong. We have to get there right away. Monsters have been chasing me all the way from Virginia, trying to stop me. Have you had a lot of attacks?" I asked.

Percy shook his head. "None all year… until today."

I was astounded. Being the son of the Big Three, his scent was much more powerful then mine, and I had been attacked so many times this year. "None? But how…" I remembered Tyson. "Oh."

"What do you mean, 'oh'?" asked Percy.

Tyson raised his hand like a kid in class wanting to answer a question. "Canadians call Percy something…Son of the Sea God?"

I looked at Percy. Did he know now?

"Big guy, you ever hear those old stories about the Greek gods? Like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena-"

Well apparently not. Obviously Tyson knew his father was Poseidon, but Percy didn't seem to have a clue.

"Yes," answered Tyson.

"Well… those gods are still alive. They kind of follow Western Civilization around, living in the strongest countries, so like now they're in the U.S. And sometimes they have kids with mortals. Kids called half-bloods."

I waited for Percy to get to the point. Tyson already knew this already.

"Yes," answered Tyson, as impatient as I was.

"Uh, well, Annabeth and I are half-bloods. We're like… heroes-in-training. And whenever monsters pick up our scent, they attack us. That's what those giants were in the gym. Monsters," said Percy.

"Yes," answered Tyson again.

"So… you believe me?" said Percy incredulously.

Tyson nodded. "But you are… Son of the Sea God?"

"Yeah," replied Percy. "My dad is Poseidon."

Tyson frowned. If you've ever seen a Cyclops frown its pretty freaky. "But then…"

A police car went by, it's siren wailing.

"We don't have time for this," I interrupted. "We'll talk in the taxi."

"A taxi all the way to camp?" cried Percy. "Do you know how much money-"

I rolled my eyes. "Trust me."

Percy hesitated. "What about Tyson?"

As much as I hated to admit it, I knew we couldn't leave the Cyclops on his own. He'd follow us back to camp anyway.

"We can't just leave him, he'll be in trouble too," insisted Percy.

"Yeah," I agreed reluctantly. "We definately need to take him. Now come on."

We sneaked through the alleys and side streets, the smoke of the gym from our battle still seeable.

"Here," I finally said, stopping on the corner of two streets. I rummaged through my bag, looking for a drachma. "I hope I have one left."

Percy was staring at me, I could feel it, even with my eyes on my bag. "What are you looking for?" he asked.

The police sirens started to get louder. I didn't doubt Sloan had told the cops some sob story of Percy maniacally blowing up the gym.

"Found one, thank the gods." I lifted a single gold drachma out of my bag.

"Annabeth," said Percy. "New York taxi drivers won't take that."

I ignored him. "Stop, Chariot of Damnation!" I said in Greek.

I threw my coin onto the street, and it sank through the asphalt and disappeared.

Then the pavement darkened, melting into a car-shaped tub of red bubbling liquid. A car shot out, and not the usual ones you see on the highway. This was a car that looked like it had been made from smoke.

I saw the words RAGY STISRES, but I knew my dyslexia was acting up. It was supposed to say GRAY SISTERS.

The passenger window rolled down, and an old woman stuck her head out, and I thought she might have been Anger, even though the Gray Sisters looked mostly the same.

"Passage? Passage?" she asked.

"Three to Camp Half-Blood," I answered. I opened the back door, and gestured to Percy to get in.

He just stared at me, then looked reluctantly at the car. I waited, impatient. The Gray Sisters weren't going to kill him, as long as we paid for our trip.

"Ach!" said Anger. "We don't take his kind!" She pointed a long bony finger at Tyson.

I sighed. "Extra pay," I promised. "Three more drachmas on arrival."

"Done!" screamed Anger, right into my ear. I muttered, rubbing it. Old lady screams were really loud.

Percy climbed into the cab first, then Tyson, and finally me.

The inside of the car was much like the outside, smoky gray, but solid.

Three old ladies sat in the front, Anger in the passenger side, Tempest in the middle, and Wasp driving. Of all my experiences in Gray Sisters taxi, Wasp had always been the best driver, so I settled in for a normal taxi ride at light speed.

"Long Island! Out-of-metro fare bonus! Ha!" screamed Wasp, and she floored the gas petal.

A voice came from the speakers. "_Hi, this is Ganymede, cup-bearer to Zeus, and when I'm out buying wine for the Lord of the Skies, I always buckle up!"_

I quickly buckled my black chain seat belt, experience telling me I would need it.

We sped around a corner, and Tempest yelled from the middle, "Look out! Go left!"

"Well, if you'd give me the eye, Tempest, I could see that!" complained Wasp.

This was the bad part about the Gray Sisters taxi. They were always bickering.

The car swerved to avoid a delivery truck, bumping onto the curb with a thump, and drove into the next block.

"Wasp!" screamed Anger. "Give me the girl's coin! I want to bite it."

"You bit it last time, Anger!" retorted Wasp. "It's my turn!"

"Is not!" yelled Anger.

Then Tempest screamed "Red light!"

"Brake!" agreed Anger.

Wasp slammed on the gas, spinning around a corner, and knocking over a newspaper stand.

"Excuse me," spoke Percy, looking a little green. "But… can you see?"

"No!" screamed Wasp.

"No!" said Tempest.

"Of course!" said Anger.

Percy looked at me, terror in his eyes. "They're blind?"

"Not completely," I explained calmly. I tried to do what they did on those animal shows where you talked softly and calmly to calm the animal down. I suspected Percy was pretty close to a frightened animal right now. "They have an eye."

"One eye?"

"Yeah."

"Each?"

"No. One eye total."

"Tyson groaned beside me and grabbed the seat. "Not feeling so good."

Oh gods, I did not want the Cyclops barf over me. I've been through too much today go through that kind of trauma.

"Oh man." Percy was obviously thinking the same thing. "Hang in there, big guy. Anybody got a garbage bag or something?"

The Gray Sisters were still arguing, and I was hanging onto the coat hanger thing in the back for dear life. Percy gave me a I-think-we're-going-to-die look.

"Hey," I reproached. "Gray Sisters Taxi is the fastest way to camp."

"Then why didn't you take it from Virginia?"

Like it wasn't obvious. But, then again, Percy wasn't very good at seeing the obvious. "That's outside their service area. They only serve Greater New York and the surrounding communities."

"We've had famous people in this cab!" shouted Anger from shotgun. "Jason! You remember him?"

"Don't remind me!" screeched Wasp. "And we didn't have a cab back then, you old bat. That was three thousand years ago!"

"Give me the tooth!" Anger tied to get it from Wasp, but Wasp hit her hand away.

"Only if Tempest gives me the eye!" she shouted.

"No! You had it yesterday!"

"But I'm driving, you old hag!" yelled Wasp.

"Excuses! Turn! That was your turn!"

Wasp turned hard, slamming me against Tyson. The smell of peanut butter went up my nose, and I pushed away, disgusted.

The sisters were fighting like they meant it now, grabbing at each other's faces, screaming things unintelligible.

Anger finally got the tooth from Wasp with the help from her eye. Wasp swerved on the bridge, yelling "'Ivit back! 'Ivit back!"

"Uh, if anybody's interested," started Percy. "We're going to die!"

Tyson grabbed his stomach and I inched away as far as I could.

"Don't worry." I tried to comfort, but I wasn't so calm myself now. "The Gray sisters know what they're doing. They're really very wise."

"Yes, wise," agreed Anger. "We know things!"

"Every street on Manhattan! The capital Nepal!" bragged Wasp.

I knew the capital of Nepal, it was Kathmandu.

"The location you seek!" added Tempest.

The other two sisters began punching Tempest. "Be quiet! Be quiet! He didn't even ask yet!"

"What?" asked Percy. "What location. I'm seeking any-"

"Nothing!" Tempest agreed. "You're right, boy. It's nothing!"

"Tell me!" demanded Percy.

"No!" they screamed.

"The last we told, it was horrible!" Tempest shuddered.

"Eye tossed in a lake!" Anger moaned.

"Years to find it again!" Wasp agreed. "And speaking of that, give it back!"

"No!" yelled Anger.

"Eye!" screamed Wasp. "Gimme!"

She hit her sister on the back, and with a stomach wrenching suction cup sound, and the eye popped out. One of them tried to grab it, but just knocked to the back.

It landed on Percy's lap, and he jumped so hard, he hit his head on the ceiling.

I started laughing uncontrollably, but the sound was lost by the Gray Sisters screaming at Percy.

"I can't see!" all the sisters screamed.

"Give me the eye!" screamed Wasp.

"Give her the eye!" I yelled to Percy. Oh gods, we were going to die.

"I don't have it!" he screamed back.

"There, by your foot!" I spotted it. "Don't step on it! Get it!"

"I'm not picking that up!"

This was not the time to be squeamish, Percy!

The taxi slammed against a guard rail, skidding with a sickening grinding noise.

"Going to be sick!" warned Tyson.

"Annabeth!" Percy yelled to me. "Let Tyson use your backpack!"

"Are you crazy?" I yelled to him. All my stuff was in there! I did not want Tyson vomit on all my clothes, thank you very much. "Get the eye!"

Wasp spun the wheel. We were going faster and faster, with the Gray Sisters screaming and pummeling each other.

Percy finally ripped off a piece of his tie-dye shirt, already half burned off and picked up the eye.

"Nice boy!" cried Anger, somehow knowing Percy had picked it up. "Give it back!"

"Not until you explain. What were you talking about, the location I seek?" asked Percy.

"No time!" screamed Tempest. "Accelerating!"

We were really fast now, whole towns going by in seconds. "Percy!" I screamed at him. "They can't find our destination without the eye. We'll just keep accelerating until we break into a million pieces."

"First they have to tell me," insisted Percy. "Or I'll open the window and throw the eye into oncoming traffic!"

"No!" yelled the sisters in unison. "Too dangerous!"

"I'm rolling down the window!"

"Wait!" screamed the Gray Sisters. "30, 31, 75, 12!"

"What do you mean?" Percy asked, confused. "That makes no sense!"

"30, 31, 75, 12! That's all we can tell you! Now give us the eye! Almost to camp!"

I could see Thalia's tree speeding towards us. "Percy!" I yelled urgently. "Give them the eye now!"

Percy threw the eye into Wasp's lap. She popped it in, and with a "Whoa!" slammed on the brakes.

The car 360'd a few times, and we skidded to a stop at Half-Blood Hill.

Tyson burped. "Better now."

I wrinkled my nose.

"All right," Percy told the Gray Sisters. "Now tell me what those numbers mean."

"No time! We have to get out now!" I yelled.

I pointed to where some of my friends were fighting for their lives at the top of Half-Blood Hill.

Oh, this was _not_ a good day.

**What do you guys think? Good so far? Yeah, I think so, but Its ur opinion that counts :D **

**Also, I've taken up ****Mina's Adventures with the Olympians****, so check that out when you get a chance!**

**Also, I am writing the first chapter of Bianca's story, so author alert me if you want to know when it comes out!**

**Review Please!**

**You guys are awesome if you do!**


	4. Mess With Bulls, Get the Horns

**Hey again! I cannot believe Fanfiction was screwing up :( yelled about five minutes at my computer when I got the error screen haha.**

**See how special you guys are to me! Hahah :P**

**I hope that you guys got my message/review on my stories that it wasn't letting me update or create a new story for Percy Jackson and the Olympians, for some strange reason…. I emailed them about it, so…**

**Also, since it was down, I wrote a bunch of chapters that couldn't be posted, so be ready! **

**P.S. You probably don't care, but check out my new prof pic! Found it online and fell in love with it!**

**One more thing: Check out my story ****Mina's Adventures with the Olympians****! Unfortunately, my Bianca story won't be out until fanfiction fixes its New Story thing, so I'm hoping that's soon!**

**I still can't make a new story, but I know how to update one. Check back to the chapter before this to see how to do it!**

**Also, are people getting the emails to say that someone has favorited, reviewed, ect ect really late? As in, like more then two days? That's whats happening to me.**

**Hehe one more thing, sorry…**

Bookworm1116**, I'm not sure if ur reading the second part of Annabeth's Story, but I cant add anything to the first one, so thanks for the reviews, and my spellcheck and grammar check on this computer is not very good, but I'll try to look it over better!**

RiversOfVenice**, I'm not sure if you are reading this Fanfic either, but I love that review! Made my bad day good! But I don't think I'm the best, because I've read a few from Annabeth's POV, and they all seemed better then mine! But I love writing, so I'm not gunna stop :) **

**And also, to whoever wrote "you suck" as a review, your comment has been removed, and I really don't appreciate the flames. I don't mind constructive criticism, or at least some helpful tips on how to fix something, but anything just plain mean will be immediately removed, whether anonymous or not.**

**Probably the longest A/N I've written so far, so here's chapter 4! Read, review and favorite!**

**Mess With Bulls, Get The Horns**

I knew my day was bad when the hellhound attacked me. Then I find out Percy befriended a Cyclops, turning my day from bad to horrible. Then, I get attacked by Laistrygonians. Day nearly dead.

Now I was standing at the borders of camp, looking at fellow campers mauled by psycho bulls and Thalia's pine tree almost lifeless. And summer vacation hadn't even officially started. I had a bad feeling that this was going to be heck of holiday.

They were Colchis Bulls, made by Hephaestus, that were the size of minivans and, of course, they just _had _to breath fire.

I think Tyche, the Goddess of Luck, a minor goddess, was either in a very bad mood, or she just didn't like me. Either way, I was pretty much screwed.

I exited the Gray Sisters taxi, my knife already out of its sheath.

"Oh, man," I breathed, looking at the destruction.

Bronze bulls chased armor covered campers, who were pretty much just running around trying not to get killed.

A low, familiar gruff voice reached my ears. "Border patrol, to me!" It was Clarisse, the counselor of the Ares cabin.

"It's Clarisse. Come on, we have to help her," I said to Percy.

Normally, the thought of helping Clarisse would make me gag, literally. It was mostly because every time I tried to help her in the past, it usually ended up with me or some other poor camper, with a wound of some kind.

But she was protecting camp, protecting Thalia's tree. She was also trying to keep campers in formation, but that was a hopeless cause. I spotted three people running around in circles, their hands in the air in pure panic.

Percy uncapped Anaklusmos, shimmering in the sunlight.

The Gray sisters peeled away, not even asking for their extra three drachmas, which I didn't even have nonetheless, so in a way it was good.

"Tyson, stay here. I don't want you taking anymore chances," said Percy, ready to sprint down the hill.

"No," I protested. "We need him."

Percy looked at me like I just killed his cat. I didn't even think he had a cat. "He's mortal. He got lucky with the dodgeballs, but he can't-"

Percy. He is a _Cyclops _for the gods sake. He will not get burned.

I mean, I knew he was thick headed, but how can you not see the one eye in the middle of his forehead? Or the way he was fireproof?

"Percy, do you know what those are up there? The Colchis bulls, made by Hephaestus himself. We can't fight them without Medea's Sunscreen SPF 50,000. We'll get burned to a crisp," I explained.

"Medea's what?" asked Percy, but I ignored him.

I searched my bag. Had I packed the sunscreen? I knew it was on my nightstand. The coconut scented kind, my personal favorite.

"I had a jar of tropical coconut sent sitting on my nightstand at home. Why didn't I bring it?"

Percy looked even more confused, but there wasn't time to explain.

"Look, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not going to let Tyson get fried," said Percy.

"Percy-" I tried to explain that Tyson was a fireproof Cyclops, but he interrupted.

"Tyson, stay back. I'm going in."

Tyson protested, but Percy was already racing down the hill to help.

I was pulled between helping the camp or letting Tyson though the boundaries.

I glanced back down the hill. Tyson would be a last resort.

I raced toward the four campers running around with the red and blue plumes on their helmets on fire. It didn't help that one of the bulls was chasing them.

"Hey, hamburger meat!" I yelled at it. "Stop playing around attack me!" I was hoping to give the campers on fire some time to recover.

The bull turned and snorted at me, smoke coming from its bronze nostrils. Well, I got its attention, but the real problem was, _how in Hades I was supposed to keep myself from becoming burned to a pile of Annabeth remains?_

It charged, and I dived to the side. When it passed, my skin felt like I had just taken a fun dip in a life-sized toaster. There was no way I could get anywhere near it with my knife.

The bull turned again, its ruby eyes and silver horns glinting in the sunlight. It let out a roar of fire from its mouth. I could have roasted marshmallows from twenty feet away!

With my ADHD, I could tell that Percy and Clarisse were holding off the other bull, but there was no stopping its destructive power.

My bull sensed my distraction and charged again. I just barely had time to dodge, and I betted that if I looked later today, there would be a bad sunburn. Or I guess, in my case, bull-burn.

The bull turned again, and looked at me in disgust. I think it was tired of playing tag, demigod style.

It raced towards Clarisse, charging straight toward her unprotected side.

"Behind you!" yelled Percy to Clarisse. "Look out!"

It did the opposite of help. Clarisse jumped, startled. My bull slammed into her shield, flaming the other campers along the way, forcing them to drop their melted shields.

Clarisse flew like a bird. Well, if you imagined a bird as a giant Ares kid with her arms and legs waving around like crazy.

She landed with her breath knocked out of her, and the other bull charged. I don't know how Percy did it, but he was able to pull her out of the way. I'm not saying Clarisse was particularly big, or that Percy was weak. He must have had that feeling of adrenaline, like when mothers lifted their cars off children.

Clarisse began punching her savior relentlessly. "Let me go! Percy, curse you!" You'd think she would be happy that Percy had saved her from a hot, painful death. But hey, Ares kids are never thankful.

"Spread out!" I yelled at the remaining campers who had not been scorched. "Distract the bulls!"

Connor Stoll, of the Hermes cabin began doing some sort of odd, I guess you could say, dance in front of the first bull, which certainly got its attention.

"Oh, gods. Oh, gods. Not smart. Not smart!" he cried when the bull charged.

On a whim, I threw my knife, expertly stabbing the bull in the eye from ten feet away. The bull reared, my knife coming out, then galloped in a wide arc toward where Percy and the other bull were fighting.

I sprinted to my knife and picked it up. There was no way I could get over there fast enough to save him.

And, of all the luck, Percy tripped, his foot caught under a root. He swung his sword desperately, and was able to cut off part of the bull's snout. It charged away, raging fire and disoriented.

But there was still a problem. My bull was charging toward Percy, who had at least a sprained ankle.

"Tyson, help him!" I screamed desperately.

"Can't- get- through!" he replied.

I didn't trust Tyson any more then I'd trust the Hermes cabin with cans of shaving cream at a sleepover. But he seemed to have a bond with Percy, a good one.

"I, Annabeth Chase, give you permission to enter camp!" Oh, gods, Mr. D was going to kill me for that. Literally.

Tyson barreled down the hill, literally shaking the ground with each footstep. "Percy needs help!"

He dove in front of Percy just as the bull let loose its flame, making a flamethrower look like a tiny match.

"Tyson!" screamed Percy.

The flames died, and Tyson was still there. The bull looked confused that he hadn't turned Tyson into a pile of ashes.

Tyson pulled his arm back, and punched the bull in the face with a "BAD COW!"

The place where the snout used to be was a crater, and fire spurted out of the deformed cow's ears. Tyson hit it again, and said, "Down!" like he was trying to train a puppy.

I ran to Percy, kneeling down to where he struggled to get up on his bad leg. When I got close enough, I smelled something burning, and I realized it was Percy. I took the canteen from my bag, lifting it to his lips.

The swelling in his ankle went down, and I sighed with relief. We had enough injured kids to take care of.

He pushed the canteen away and glanced at me. "The other bull?"

I pointed down the hill to where Clarisse had stabbed a spear into its back leg and cut a huge gash down its side. It was no limping around in awkward circles, like it was to catch its tail like a dog.

Clarisse took off her helmet and marched toward us. "You! Ruin! Everything!" she screamed at Percy.

Ahh, good old Clarisse. I'd missed her anger this year.

Percy had a 'deer in the headlights' look on him, and I grumbled, "Good to see you too, Clarisse."

"Argh! Don't ever, EVER, try saving me again!" she screamed. She looked like she was going to tear her own hair out by the roots.

I glanced at Percy, who still had a look of astonishment on his face.

"Clarisse, you've got wounded campers," I reminded, just to get her to go away.

Clarisse became serious. "I'll be back." It reminded me of the movie "Terminator" where Arnold Schwarzenegger had the same line.

Percy stared at Tyson as Clarisse walked away. "You didn't die."

It was a statement not a question. I hoped he was beginning to grasp that Tyson was a Cyclops.

Tyson looked at his giant feet. "I am sorry. Came to help. Disobeyed you."

As much as I hated Cyclops, I hated it more when someone was blamed for something a bunch of people did.

"My fault," I said. "I had no choice. I had to let Tyson cross the boundary line to save you. Otherwise, you would have died."

Percy didn't seem to care about the whole, 'you almost died' thing. He was more interested in Tyson. "_Let_ him cross the boundary line? But-"

"Percy," I interrupted. "Have you ever looked at Tyson closely? I mean… in the face. Ignore the Mist and _really _look at him."

Percy slowly looked up at Tyson. His eyes got wider, and I knew the Mist had cleared from his mind.

"Tyson... you're a…"

Percy seemed lost for words. "Cyclops," I helped. "A baby, by the looks of him. Probably why he couldn't get past the boundary line as easy as the bulls. Tyson's one of the homeless orphans."

"One of what?" asked Percy.

"They're almost always in big cities," I said, trying to keep the distaste out of my voice simply because Percy seemed to be in some kind of shock. "They're… mistakes, Percy. Children of nature spirits and gods… Well, one god in particular, usually…"

Something told me this was not the time to tell Percy his half-brother was a Cyclops.

"And they don't always come out right," I continued. "No one wants them. They get tossed aside. They grow up wild on the streets. I don't know how this one found you, but he obviously likes you. We should take him to Chiron, let him decide what to do."

Chiron was one of the people I missed the most this year. He was like a second father to me, filling the place in my heart all those years that my true father had left empty. He always knew what to do.

"But the fire. How-" asked Percy.

"He's a Cyclops. They work the forges of the gods. They _have _to be immune to fire. That's what I was trying to tell you," I said.

I waited silently for the information to sink in to Percy's brain. There wasn't much time until we had to move.

Clarisse came over, wiping the soot off her forehead. "Jackson, if you can stand, get up. We need to carry the wounded back to the Big House, let Tantalus know what's happened."

"Tantalus?" asked Percy.

"The activities director," explained Clarisse.

But Chiron was the activities director. What had happened when I was gone? Where was Chiron?

"Chiron is the activities director," said Percy. "And where's Argus? He's head of security. He should be here."

Clarisse's faced twisted into a scowl. "Argus got fired. You two have been gone too long. Things are changing."

"But Chiron… He's trained kids to fight monsters for over a thousand years. He can't just be gone. What happened?" asked Percy.

Something bad happened, obviously. I was just sure that I didn't really want to find out.

"That happened." Clarisse pointed towards Thalia's tree. It was even worse then in my dreams. Piles of dead needles litter the ground, and the ones still on the tree had turned a sickly yellow.

About three feet up from the base of the trunk was a hole that oozed green sap.

My heart clenched painfully. Someone had poisoned it.

**How was this chapter? Another short one though. **

**Hope you liked it!**

**Review!**


	5. Percy Gets a Roomie

**Heyyy! OMG guys, OH EM GEE! Checked my traffic today, guess how many hits this month. Come on, guess. Yeah, that's right, 10,000! Then I checked last month, and it was only 3,000! HOLY HADES! You all get an internet creepy-why-is-this-stranger-hugging-me hug! Plus….. you get RUBBER DUCKIES! I love rubber duckies….. :D especially the cowboy ones.**

**The reason that my updates are taking longer is that I am just plain exhausted and I don't even know why. Maybe it's the stress of realizing I'm going to HIGHSCHOOL next year. I come from a school of about 170 kids, pre k-8, and then going to a school of about 1,000. BIG change. **

**Fanfiction still isn't letting me make a new story, so Bianca will just have to be patient!**

**Firstly: **MrProngs **Love your Fanfic name! And I don't even know why, but it made my day! And also thank you! As long as I know people are reading, I will keep writing, but reviews help too! *hint hint* Sigh, I wish I was on spring break. Two more weeks, unfortunately. **

LoveTheNight **OMG thank you! I was feeling sorta sad after that, but u made me happy again! Plus, I love how you said "kick-butt writing" I don't even know why, but it was awesome.**

**Just because **summergirl1881 **insisted, I'm going to ask my readers. Should I do my own version of ****The Son of Neptune****? It would be from Percy's side mostly, of course, and maybe a little bit of view switching depending on how it goes.**

**What are your thoughts? Should I wait until after The Son of Neptune comes out then do my own version of the next one?**

**And also, been thinking about doing a fanfic on a series of one shots about Luke/Thalia or maybe Thalia/Nico….. Any thoughts?**

**Plus, I've noticed, the more reviews a story gets, the more people check it out, and they review/favorite, whatever, so you guys think you wanna review? Lol, I feel like this is an advertisement or something :P**

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**Percy Gets A Roomie**

At first glance, Camp Half-Blood didn't seem to have changed. Cabins were in their correct place, a few whiffs of smoke here and there, but for demigods, that normal. Naiads weaved baskets underwater, for what, I don't know.

It was the overall emotion of the camp itself. Everything seemed dark and gloomy. Campers sat, staring at nothing, or whispering quietly with each other, glancing nervously up at the hill where Thalia's pine tree was. Bandages covered others, in every place imaginable. Counselors and other unhurt campers stocked up all the weapons, putting them into the armory. Dryads nervously surrounded their trees, armed with bows and arrows.

I was going to _kill _whoever did this to Thalia.

Percy's face got dark and angry. He hated this as much as I did.

We walked to the Big House, and no one stopped us on our way to say, 'Hey' or 'Nice to see you again!' Just an occasional double take when they spotted Tyson.

They had been through too much to be happy to see us.

"Whasthat?" "Whasthat?" was all heard from Tyson the whole time. He was going to give me a monster-sized migraine.

Percy patiently explained, so I guess he had some experience with it. He was the patient type, when he felt like it. Not one bit of resent as he said what was what. In some ways, he had more self-control then I did. Some, not all. And a very few some. Just making it clear.

We found Chiron in his small apartment in the Big House packing his saddlebags. I don't think I've ever been happier to see him after all these months in Virginia.

He was listening to (gods curse it) Dean Martin, possibly put on this earth to annoy the life out of people. Literally.

For example. The second verse of That's Amore goes like:

_When the moon_

_Hits your eye_

_Like a big_

_Pizza pie_

_That's Amore._

Or, for example: That's Amore

_When the stars_

_Make you drool_

_Just like a _

_Pasta fazool_

_That's Amore._

I don't know how Chiron could stand it, but hey, who's to judge? But seriously. Hits your eye like a big pizza pie? I didn't even know pizzas could come in pie form, let alone it hitting your eye. Or that stars that make you drool.

Tyson didn't seem bothered by the music though. "Pony!" he cried, and I had to muffle a giggle.

"I beg your pardon?" said Chiron, startled.

I ran up and hugged him, feeling the saddlebags slung over his back filled with stuff.

Where was Chiron going? Was he ever going to come back? He was the only real father I'd ever known for most of my life!

"Chiron what's happening? You're not… leaving?" I asked hesitantly.

Chiron ruffled my hair like he always used to and smiled kindly down at me.

"Hello, child. And Percy, my goodness. You've grown over the year!"

Percy swallowed, scared. "Clarisse said you were… you were…" He seemed scared to say the word.

"Fired." Chiron's eyes glinted. "Ah, well, someone had to take the blame. Lord Zeus was most upset. The tree he'd created from the spirit of his daughter, poisoned! Mr. D had to punish someone."

"Besides himself, you mean," muttered Percy darkly.

"But this is crazy!" I protested shrilly. "Chiron, you couldn't have had anything to do with poisoning Thalia's tree!"

I exchanged a glance with Percy who silently agreed with me. Funny how after one summer of near death adventures could push two people together.

"Nevertheless, some in Olympus do not trust me now, under the circumstances," Chiron said.

"What circumstances?" asked Percy.

The one thing I hadn't missed about him. His cluelessness about Greek history. Well, maybe just a little, only because it gave me an opportunity to teach something new and tease him at the same time.

Chiron's face got more gloomy, if possible, as he put a Latin-to-English dictionary in his saddlebag.

Tyson seemed to be in the same trance he had been when he wanted to touch my hair, but with more force. "Pony?"

Chiron huffed. "My dear young Cyclops! I am a centaur."

"Chiron, what about the tree? What happened?" interrupted Percy.

Chiron shook his head miserably. "The poison used on Thalia's tree is something from the Underworld, Percy. Some venom even _I _have never seen. It must have come from a monster quite in Tartarus."

The coldhearted, evil, cruel, ungrateful excuse for a demigod who poisoned the tree! They were going to the pits of Tartarus even if I was going to drag their sorry butts there.

"Then we know who's responsible. Kro-"

I wanted to duct tape Percy's mouth shut for eternity and then another five years.

"Do not invoke the titan lord's name, Percy. Especially not here, not now," scolded Chiron.

"But last summer he tried to cause a civil war in Olympus! This _has _to be his idea. He'd get Luke to do it, the traitor."

My heart twisted painfully. It couldn't have been Luke who had poisoned the tree. He wouldn't do that to Thalia, who saved our lives by sacrificing herself.

"Perhaps. But I fear I am being held responsible because I did not prevent it and I cannot cure it. The tree has only a few weeks of life unless…"

I caught my breath. What could save Thalia's tree? "Unless what?" I asked.

"No. A foolish thought. The whole valley is feeling the shock of the poison. The magical borders are deteriorating. The camp itself is dying. Only one source of magic would be strong enough to reverse the poison, and it was lost centuries ago," spoke Chiron, half to himself.

He couldn't mean… Could he? The Golden Fleece? The odds of us finding it were one in at least a million. Trust me, I did the math.

"What is it? We'll go find it!" cried Percy.

Chiron stalled, no pun intended, shutting off the dreaded music and closing his bag. Then he stared steadily into Percy's eyes, serious warning coming off him in waves.

"Percy, you must promise me you will not act rashly. I told your mother I did not want you to come here this summer. It's much too dangerous. But now that you are here, _stay _here. Train hard. Learn to fight. But do not leave."

Chiron must be really scared, or off his rocker, because just last summer, he had sent Percy out on a quest with no training, to save the world. And to Chiron, Camp Half-Blood _was_ his world, and I knew he would do what he had to do, to keep it safe.

"Why?" protested Percy. He felt just as helpless as I did. If there's anything a demigod hates more, its being patient and waiting. "I want to do something! I can't just let the borders fail. The whole camp will be-"

"Overrun by monsters," finished Chiron. "Yes, I fear so. But you must not let yourself be baited into hasty action! This could be a trap of the titan lord. Remember last summer? He almost took your life."

Percy stayed silent, but I could tell he wanted to say something.

Emotions flooded through me. Panic for Thalia. Sadness for Chiron. Fear for the camp. Anger for not being able to do anything. Guilty for being away from camp so long. Empathy for Percy.

I hated crying. It was a sign of weakness, something only small children did. I haven't cried since Thalia was turned into a tree, a silent promise that I would be strong, be worthy of her sacrifice.

But this was just too much. A tear escaped my eyes, and slid down my cheek. Chiron wiped it away. "Stay with Percy, child. Keep him safe. The prophecy-remember it!"

My eyes widened. How did he know that I had heard the prophecy? Did he have some video recorder in the attic or something? "I-I will."

"Um…" spoke Percy, breaking the moment. "Would this be the super-dangerous prophecy that has me in it, but the gods have forbidden you to tell me about it?"

We ignored him.

"Right," he muttered. "Just checking."

"Chiron… You told me the gods made you immortal only so long as you were needed to train heroes. If they dismiss you from camp-" I gulped. Chiron dying was out of the question. Not possible.

But a voice spoke into my head. _Didn't you think Luke couldn't be bad? Couldn't try to kill Percy? Join Kronos? _

I was really starting to hate that voice.

"Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger. Swear upon the river Styx," insisted Chiron, staring intently into my eyes. This was of utmost importance.

"I-I swear it upon the River Styx." I felt something wrap around me. Not physical, but still binding. Sort of like the Unbreakable Vow from the Harry Potter series, except you don't die when you break it. Usually.

Thunder rumbled.

"Very well," said Chiron. He seemed less stressed now that he knew that I was keeping Percy safe. "Perhaps my name will be cleared and I shall return. Until then, I go to visit my wild kinsmen in the Everglades. It's possible they know of some cure for the poisoned tree that I have forgotten. In any event, I will stay in exile until this matter is resolved… one way or another."

I put a hand over my mouth, trying to quiet the sobs. Chiron patted me on my shoulder. "There, now, child. I must entrust your safety to Mr. D and the new activities director. We must hope… well, perhaps they wont destroy the camp as quickly as I fear."

Well, that was optimistic. Not.

"Who is this Tantalus guy, anyway?" asked Percy. "Where does he get off taking your job?"

I heard the familiar sound of the conch horn telling campers it was time for dinner.

"Go," Chiron urged. "You will meet him at the pavilion. I will contact your mother, Percy, and let her know you're safe. No doubt she'll be worried by now. Just remember my warning! You are in grave danger. Do not think for a moment that the titan lord has forgotten you!"

I couldn't help it anymore. Tears streamed down my cheeks and my shoulders shook with ragged sobs. How could Chiron leave? The camp would deteriorate without him!

"Pony! Don't go!" cried Tyson as Chiron clopped away, out of camp, into the unknown. Would I see him again? Would I see my father, my teacher, my friend?

I steeled up as we walked toward the pavilion, splitting up with Percy to join the Athena cabin.

"Annabeth." Malcolm nodded at me.

"Nice to see you again, Annabeth!" Tara Owlean, a girl of ten.

I gave a comforting smile. "We ready?" I asked.

The thirteen boys and girls nodded, and I led the line to the buffet style table where various dryads lay food down.

I spotted lasagna. Oh yes. I did get along with my stepmother somewhat, but lets face it. She wasn't a cook. The last time I tried one of her "experiments"…. Well, let's just say the bathroom became much more accustomed to me.

I got a huge chunk of that, along with some garlic bread and a Caesar salad.

"Sheesh, Annabeth, feeding a hellhound?" joked Malcolm.

"Well, when someone hits puberty, they tend to eat more. Still waiting for that Malcolm?" Gods, teasing Malcolm was one of the things I missed the most.

"Ohhh…." Echoed various Athena campers.

I smiled, scraping half my salad and a piece of garlic bread in the brazier, muttering "Athena."

Other cabins filed in, chatters of conversation reaching my ears.

"Camp not safe…"

"…Could Chiron really…?"

"Freaking Cyclops in camp…"

"Pip pip di doodley doo!"

I didn't really want to know where the last thing came from.

Percy led Tyson to the center of the dining pavilion, and conversations stopped.

"Who invited that?" asked Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin.

Percy glared at the voice, but he was too late to figure out who it was.

"Well, well, if it isn't Peter Johnson. My millennium is complete," said Mr. D, boredom overlaid with dark humor.

"Percy Jackson… sir." Said Percy through clenched teeth.

"Yes," said Dionysius, sipping his coke arbitrarily. "Well, as you young people say these days. Whatever."

I wasn't paying attention though. I was looking at the pale thin form of a man in a prisoners suit. Whoever he was, he was hungry. And not just in the food sense. There was a hunger in his eyes, the way his fingers curled and twitched. It creeped me out.

"This boy," Mr. D gestured toward Percy. "You need to watch. Poseidon's child, you know."

"Ah!" said the hungry guy. "That one." It sounded like they had talked about Percy before.

"I am Tantalus. On special assignment here until, well, until my Lord Dionysus decides otherwise. And you, Percy Jackson, I do expect you to refrain from causing anymore trouble."

"Trouble?" asked Percy.

Dionysus snapped his fingers, a newspaper appearing in front of him with the picture of a burning building on the front.

I was too far away from the table to read the headline, but I was pretty sure it went something like: CRAZY THIRTEEN YEAR OLD BURNS SCHOOL GYM TO ASHES.

"Yes, trouble," replied Tantalus with obvious glee. "You caused plenty of it last summer, I understand."

My face reddened with anger. Without Percy, the world would have gone down in flames! Literally.

"Root beer. Barq's special stock. 1967," was all Tantalus said, and looked at the glass longingly, but afraid.

Then the thought came to me. Gods, I was an idiot! Tantalus was the person who, in ancient Greek times, fed his children to the gods. Okay, first, I thought it was completely gross. And also, your own kids? Sick. Just plain sick.

Anyway, he was punished for eternity, standing in a pond, with a fruit tree hanging overhead. Great break, right? Well, think again. Whatever water he tried to drink went dry. Food ran away as if he was some kind cereal killer.

Tantalus reached for the soda, but it flew away. He tried to stab some brisket. Same thing happened. Well, he deserved it.

"Blast," cursed Tantalus.

"Ah, well," said Mr. D, but from his expression, I could tell he didn't care. "Perhaps a few more days. Believe me, old chap, working at this camp will be torture enough. I'm sure your old curse will fade eventually."

"Eventually," sulked Tantalus. "Do you have any idea how dry one's throat gets after three thousand years?"

"You're that spirit from the Fields of Punishment. The one who stands in the lake with the fruit tree hanging over you, but you can't eat or drink," breathed Percy.

Way to go, Sherlock.

Tantalus sneered. "A real scholar, aren't you, boy?"

Oh gods, someone kill me now. I was having the same thoughts as the child killer.

"You must've done something really horrible when you were alive. What was it?" asked Percy.

Oh, Percy, now was not the time.

Tantalus's eyes narrowed into slits. The satyrs behind him shook their heads with such vigor I thought they were going to shake their horns off.

"I'll be watching you, Percy Jackson. I don't want any problems at my camp," said Tantalus dangerously.

"Your camp has problems already… sir."

Oh, really, Percy, like putting "sir" at the end of each derogatory sentence was going to help.

"Oh, go sit down, Johnson. I believe the table over there is yours. The one where no one ever wants to sit."

Percy's face turned the color of a ripe tomato. And I mean a really ripe tomato. As in, perfect throwing-at-bad-comedians tomato red.

"Come on, Tyson," said Percy.

"Oh, no. The monster stays here. We must decide what to do with it."

"Him," retorted Percy. "His name is Tyson."

Tantalus raised an eyebrow.

"Tyson saved the camp. He pounded those bronze bulls. Otherwise they would have burned down the whole place," insisted Percy.

"Yes, and what a pity that would've been."

Mr. D sniggered like a preppy schoolgirl.

"Leave us," ordered Tantalus. "While we decide this creatures fate."

Percy was torn. Leave the monster to the crazy killer, or turned into a pile of ashes.

"I'll be right over here, big guy. Don't worry. We'll find you a good place to sleep tonight," said Percy at last.

Tyson nodded. "I believe you. You are my friend."

Percy walked reluctantly to the empty Poseidon table, where a wood nymph placed a plate of food in front of him. He ceremonially put food in the brazier, and sulked until dinner was almost over. I had a great time eating lasagna and laughing with my siblings. But every now and then I would glance over worriedly.

"Yes, well," spoke Tantalus. "Another fine meal! Or so I am told." His hand reached toward his dinner plate, as if sneaking up on it would let him touch it. Obviously, it flew away.

"And here on my first day of authority," he continued as if nothing had happened. "I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer, I hope to torture, er, interact with each and every one of you children. You all look good enough to eat."

Oh, gods, there was no way he was going anywhere near me with a fork.

Half-hearted applause came from Mr. D and the satyrs.

"And now some changes!" cried Tantalus. "We are reinstituting the chariot races."

Was this guy freaking crazy? He had the nerve to act all high and mighty, ordering us around, making executive decisions the very day our _real _activities director left?

I was going to kick his scrawny little butt all the way back to Hades.

"Now, I know that the races were discontinued some years ago due to, ah, technical problems," said Tantalus.

"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations," called an Apollo kid.

"Yes, yes." Tantalus waved it off as we were talking about killing flies, not demigods. "But I know you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition. Colden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses. Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?"

Gosh, I hated the guy, but he could do a dang good pep talk.

"But sir!" called Clarisse. What about patrol duty? I mean, if we drop everything to ready our chariots-"

"Ah, the hero of the day," interrupted Tantalus. "Brave Clarisse, who singlehandedly bested the bronze bulls!"

Clarisse blushed, and blinked in astonishment. She wasn't used to much praise, though coming from Tantalus, wasn't sure it was a good thing.

"And modest too," smiled Tantalus. "Not to worry, my dear! This is a summer camp. We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"

"But the tree-"

Tantalus got a glint in his eyes and Clarisse's siblings pulled her back down in her seat.

"And now," continued Tantalus. "Before we proceed to the campfire and sing-along, one slight housekeeping issue. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have seen fit, for some reason, to bring this here." He gestured at Tyson.

Oh, great. Now people were staring at me. They probably thought it was my idea to bring him here. It wasn't like I had a choice!

"Now, of course, Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monster with a very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release this beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointy sticks. But who knows? Perhaps this Cyclops is not as horrible as most of its brethren. Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes's cabin, possibly?"

I could tell that Travis and Connor Stoll were not too fond of this idea.

"Come, now," chided Tantalus. "The monster may be able to do some menial chores. Any suggestions as to where the beast should be kenneled?"

Then I spotted something floating above Tyson. Well, it was hard _not _to see it. A glowing trident surrounded in green flames.

There was awed silence, then "Well! I think we know where to put the beast now! By the gods, I can see the family resemblance!

Laughter rippled through the campers, only Percy, me, and a few of my closest friends saying nothing.

I think I'm going to punch Tantalus in the face.

Tyson tried to swat the fading away.

I had a sinking feeling this was going to be an interesting summer.

**Hey, guys, did you catch my pun for serial killer? Cereal killer…. Heheheh :D**

**Couldn't resist! Hope you liked it.**

**I tried to get Annabeth to be in a bad mood most of the time. Hope it worked!**

**Review!**


	6. Attack of the Pigeons?

**Sup, my Fanfiction buddies?**

**Something scary happened today O_o. My mom and stepdad were in the hot tub, and my three dogs started barking. I went upstairs to check it out, and they were barking at the TV, which was ON! I knew that my mom had turned it off, too. I swear this is a true story, and now I am freaking out that my house is haunted. I wouldn't have even thought about it unless my dogs weren't barking at the TV. I am so scared now. **

**But fanfiction isn't about my haunted house. On with the show! Er… Story? Writing? Whatever haha :D**

arissaprincess321 **Don't worry, I'm 14 and still have a bedtime haha. **

**Also, love all the reviews about the "cereal killer" I couldn't resist!**

Allie357 **Haha love it that you noticed the references!**

**And, finally, I have decided, that after I finish Bianca's Story, I am going to do a Thalia/Luke one shot series! Thanks **no chance**!**

**And **summergirl881** I really wanted to do the Son of Neptune thing, but I realized that since I was already doing a full time Annabeth's Story series, that it would be really hard to keep up. Sorry!**

Me **haha sorry about the grammatical mistakes, but my spell-check messes up with that! Plus, I get a little confused or I may accidently type something wrong… :D**

**And lastly, I have a HUGE QUESTION FOR YOU! Do you think… that I am good enough to go for a career as an author? I mean, besides all the typos and grammatical mistakes. Probably I will get better once I get into high school and take Creative Writing and other writing classes!**

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**Attack of the… Pigeons?**

It seemed that camp had turned from awesome to not-some. Percy was all ashamed from Tyson following him around, giggling about being Percy's little brother. And Tyson wasn't what I would call _little. _He had Percy by at least a foot, both in tallness and width. I guess it came with the whole Cyclops thing.

Percy's rep fell like it had dropped off a cliff, caught by a seagull, and then dropped into one of those caves that go into the earth for, like, ten miles. He was no longer the Percy Jackson who had saved the world from totally annihilation. He was now the Percy Jackson who had a mistake for a brother.

Many times I would walk by hearing, "He's not my real brother! He's more like a half-brother on the monstrous side."

Truth be told, I felt horrible for him. But what was I to do? If it was my choice, I would probably turn Tyson into dust, but that wouldn't go well with Percy at all. And plus, I owed the Cyclops for saving Percy's life twice. As much as I hated to admit it, but without Percy around, nothing would be fun, or exciting, or even slightly eventful.

I tried to cheer him up by offering to be his chariot partner, no matter how much he bugged about putting flames on the side of the chariot.

But I was distracted. Tantalus had said that everything should be put into the chariot races, leaving the camp open from attack. And where was Luke? I had spent most of the school year wondering where he was, what he was doing, and if I tell you this last part, I may have to kill you, but I really, really missed him.

One morning, when drawing our plans for the chariot, a pair of annoying Aphrodite girls walked by. "Heyy, Percy. You wanna borrow some eyeliner for your eye? Oh, wait, I'm sorry, _eyes."_

They walked away laughing. "Just ignore them, Percy. It isn't your fault you have a monster for your brother," I advised.

"He's not my brother! And he's not a monster, either!" retorted Percy.

I raised my eyebrows. "Hey, don't get mad at me! And technically, he is a monster."

"Well you gave him permission to enter camp!" he accused.

"Because it was the only way to save your life! I mean… I'm sorry, Percy, I didn't expect Poseidon to claim him! Cyclops are the most deceitful, treacherous-" I rambled.

"He is not! What do you have against Cyclopes, anyway?"

_Annabeth, breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out._ I told myself. "Just forget it. Now, the axle for this chariot-"

"You're treating him like he's this horrible thing. He saved my life!" yelled Percy.

That was it. The last straw. I stood up and slammed the pencil down. "Then maybe you should design a chariot with _him."_

"Maybe I should!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Oh my gods, we were like little school girls fighting over a best friend.

I stormed off to fume under Thalia's tree, leaving Percy staring resentfully after me.

The next few days were just a distraction from life. I worked on the monument I would someday build on Ground Zero.

"Hey, Malcolm, you wanna build a chariot with me?" I asked Malcolm one night, sitting on my bed in the Athena cabin.

"Aren't you with Percy?" he asked.

"We, umm… had some different ideas about the chariot."

"Okay, sure."

I could tell he wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but hey, I was one of the best inventors in the cabin. If anyone was going to win this competition, it was me.

I worked on my fighting skills, easily defeating everyone. I needed a challenge. I needed Percy. At least he was a pretty good sword fighter.

More then once, I caught Percy staring at me thoughtfully. If he wanted an apology from me, he wasn't getting one. I wasn't the girl that comes back on her knees.

Finally, the day of the race came around. The day was hot and humid, and the tension in the air got thicker and thicker.

The Hephaestus cabin had reprogrammed the bronze bulls to pull a plow and made a perfect track in minutes.

I was pumped. Malcolm had everything set, and I was going to drive the horses.

"Right!" Tantalus cried, and a naiad brought a plate of pastries. "You all know the rules. A quarter mile track. Twice around to win. Two horses per chariot. Each team will consist of a driver and a fighter. Weapons are allowed. Dirty tricks are expected. But try not to kill anybody!" he cackled. "Any killing will result in harsh punishment. No s'mores at the campfire for a week. Now ready your chariots!"

Great pep talk, Tantalus, great pep talk.

Percy approached me just before the race began. "Hey, Annabeth. I, um, had another dream about Grover."

"Grover?" I asked, looking up.

"Yeah. He's stuck in a cave in a wedding dress. Someone, or something is keeping him there. He said he's in the Sea of Monsters. And he's found the Golden Fleece! What is that?"

Was he serious? Like Grover would be in a wedding dress, in a cave, in the Sea of Monsters. Even for Percy, that was not believable.

"You're trying to distract me," I concluded.

"What? No I'm not!" he protested.

"Oh, right! Like Grover would just happen to stumble across the one thing that could save camp."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. "Go back to your chariot, Percy."

"I'm not making this up. He's in trouble, Annabeth."

I hesitated. Could he really be telling the truth? What were the odds that Grover had established an empathy link with Percy? Slim to none. I wanted to trust him. But as a daughter of Athena, I was trained to be ready for any kind of sabotage.

"Percy, an empathy link is so hard to do. I mean, it's more likely that you were dreaming," I explained.

"The Oracle. We could consult the Oracle."

I frowned. There was no way Percy would go anywhere near the Oracle unless it was his last resort. I mean, the last time he talked to the dead girl up in the attic, he realized he had to go across the country and save the world in a week.

I was about to answer, but the conch horn sounded.

"Charioteers! To your mark!" called Tantalus.

"We'll talk later," I said. "After I win."

Percy smiled. "Bring it."

I turned back to my chariot and glanced at the trees. Pigeons were everywhere. It was like they were having a convention on which was better, bird seed or food scraps. They screeched angrily, flapping their wings. And they all congregated around the track, like crazy race fans.

I glanced at my competition. Percy was having trouble just getting the horses let Tyson on the chariot. The others were checking inventory, doing last minute touch-ups.

"Charioteers! Attend your marks!" yelled Tantalus, unfortunately, in my ear. He dropped his hand, and we were off.

Hooves thundered the dirt. Cheers came from the stands, and the screeching got louder.

We sped ahead, and I followed my already planned out route that would make the shortest distance.

A crash came from behind me, and I saw the Hermes and Apollo cabin riders go flying.

It was the first ten seconds and already two chariots down. This was going to be a piece of cake.

I made my turn around the first post, and Malcolm yelled "See ya!" to the other chariots. I laughed in pure glee.

The birds got louder, but I was too focused on winning.

"Um, Annabeth, Percy's gaining!" Malcolm said nervously.

I glanced behind me. Curse it, he was only a length behind. "Javelin, Malcolm!" I said.

He picked it up, about to throw, when the birds attacked.

Stymphalian birds swarmed the stands, the chariots, the people and horses.

Ugh, now was not the time for an attack. All I wanted was a normal day at camp. But, no, some crazy demon birds just _have _to attack. Someone wanna trade a life?

"Stymphalian birds!" I yelled, slowing down my chariot next to Percy's. "They'll strip everyone to bones if we don't drive them away!"

"Tyson! We're turning around!" yelled Percy.

"Going the wrong way?" Tyson asked.

"Always," mutter Percy.

I spun around and urged my horses to run next to Percy's. "Heroes! To arms!" I shouted.

Birds dived at our face, but Malcolm and Tyson held it off, while Percy swung his sword maniacally trying to get through the haze of birds. Me, I was trying not to get my head cut off from Percy's sword.

I pulled out my knife, and stabbed randomly, each time, turning a bird into dust, they were so thick.

"Too many!" yelled Percy to me. "How do you get rid of them?"

I stabbed a pigeon. "Hercules used noise! Brass bells! He scared them away with the most horrible sound he could-" I stopped, a stroke of genius hitting me. "Percy… Chiron's collections!"

Percy's eyes lit up. "You think it'll work?"

I gave my reins to Malcolm, and leaped into Percy's chariot. "To the Big House! It's our only chance!"

Clarisse yelled at us as we passed her. "You're running? The fight is here!"

Percy neighed to the horses, which ran faster. I didn't know he could speak horse, but it was certainly entertaining.

We stormed through the camp's grounds, over strawberries, past the archery range, and skidded to a stop at the Big House.

Percy and I charged into Chiron's apartment, and I grabbed his boombox from, like, the 70's. Percy grabbed a CD and we raced out to the track.

When we finally got back, people's clothes were ripped to shreds, and the birds were destroying everything.

Chariots were on fire, and I didn't even know how that could happen, when just the birds were attacking.

Tantalus was just chasing some doughnuts in circles, yelling "Everything is okay!"

Yeah, Tantalus, we are all going to be ripped to shreds. But I guess that's "okay" in your eyes.

I used all my skills to figure out how to turn the ancient CD player on, while Percy opened the case of _All-Time Greatest Hits of Dean Martin. _

Percy pressed play, and the air was filled with tone-deaf Italian singers.

The birds went nuts, like there was only one chip left in a bag on the street, and they were all starving.

They bumped into each other, clawing mercilessly. Then they flew into a huge clump in the air, trying to get away from the horrible music.

"Now! Archers!" I shouted.

Dozens of arrows shot into the sky, and birds dropped like rain, while the survivors flapped into the distance.

I shut off the horrible music, flopping onto the sand with grunt.

"Bravo! We have our first winner!" Tantalus cried, and I looked up.

Clarisse was at the finish line, golden laurels being bestowed.

Then Tantalus looked at Percy and I with a smirk.

"And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted the race."

Oh, crap.

**I don't know why, but this chapter seemed really boring. **

**Oh, well, some good chapters are coming soon! Can't wait!**

**Until next time, my Fanfictioners!**

**Review!**


	7. Quest! Quest!

**Sup, my Fanfictioners? I'm in a really happy mood! :D Because of your awesome reviews, of course! 50, and I'm only on chapter 7! Holy Hades. **

**You think I can get 100 by the time I finish this book? Lets hope for it! Cross your fingers, toes, any other body part that can be physically crossed without a painful outcome :P**

GhostDog401 **Thanks for the support, -_- "Sweet in a creepy way," Hahah! I'm just kidding you! Lol'd at that! **

Me **I think that was the best review I have ever gotten! Made me soo happy inside. You deserve a round of applause. Seriously! Loved it!**

**BTW, just giving a heads up, my April break is in two weeks, and I may be travelling, so when the time comes, there may not be as many updates for a week. But I'll be back! Don't worry! :D**

**Of course, Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**Quest! Quest! **

Tantalus should go back to Hades where he belongs. According to him, the Stymphalian birds had been minding their own business, and our "bad" driving "forced" them to attack us.

Percy was so mad he yelled, "Go chase a doughnut!" I thought it was hilarious, but I guess Tantalus had no sense of humor.

He punished us with kitchen duty, washing pots and plates all afternoon. Now, in the mortal world, they use water and dish soap, but who needs that when you've got some handy-dandy lava? It gives that extra sparkle of cleanliness, along with killing all germs that any potential camper might have.

Tyson just reached into the lava like it was luke-warm water, happily scrubbing away. Percy and I were forced to wear asbestos gloves, and almost immediately, I was covered in sweat, my hair drooping from my ponytail. Not very attractive, if you know what I mean.

And, on top of that, Tantalus had ordered a feast for Clarisse winning the chariot race, giving us way more plates then usual. Percy told his dream again, and this time I did believe him. The truthfulness in his eyes was enough, they way they shined with sincerity.

"If he's really found it," I murmured, half to myself, "and if we could retrieve it…"

"Hold on," interrupted Percy. "You act like this… whatever-it-is Grover found is the only thing in the world that could save camp. What is it?"

I decided to let Percy try and figure this out, just for the fun of it. "I'll give you a hint. What do you get when you skin a ram?"

"Messy?" he answered with a question.

Idiot.

"A fleece." I sighed. Sometimes he was just such a… such a… _Seaweed Brain. _I smiled on the inside. I missed calling him that. "The coat of a ram is called a fleece. And if that ram happens to have golden wool…"

"The Golden Fleece. Are you serious?"

I was debating about giving him a round of applause as I scraped some leftover maniacal bird in the lava tub. ""Percy, remember the Gray Sisters? They said they knew the location of the thing you seek. And they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told_ him _to find the Golden Fleece. You do know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?"

"Yeah," said Percy. "That old movie with the clay skeletons."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh my gods, Percy! You are so hopeless."

"What?" he replied indignantly.

"Just listen. The real story of the Fleece: there were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus and Europa, okay? They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices, when they prayed to Zeus to save them. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor. Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important."

"It was probably important to her."

"The point is, when Cadmus got to Colchis, he sacrificed the golden ram to the gods and hung the Fleece in a tree in the middle of the kingdom. The Fleece brought prosperity to the land. Animals stopped getting sick. Plants grew better. Farmers had bumper crops. Plagues never visited. That's why Jason wanted the Fleece. It can revitalize any land where it's placed. It cures sickness, strengthens nature, cleans up pollution-"

Percy interrupted before my list could get longer. "It could cure Thalia's tree.

I nodded. "And it would totally strengthen the borders of Camp Half-Blood. But Percy, the Fleece has been missing for centuries. Tons of heroes have searched for it with no luck."

"But Grover found it. He went looking for Pan and he found the Fleece instead because they both radiate nature magic. It makes sense, Annabeth. We can rescue him and save the camp at the same time. It's perfect!"

I wished I had his enthusiasm. I hesitated before answering. "A little _too _perfect, don't you think?"

I had a mental flashback of last summer when Kronos had tried, _and _failed, I might add, to start a civil war between the gods.

"What choice do we have? Are you going to help me rescue Grover or not?" asked Percy.

Gods, I hated it when he did the "or not?" thing with me. I was such a sucker for that. I glanced a Tyson, who had long lost interest in our conversation. He was having a little fun making a lava ocean for some plates and silverware.

"Percy," I finally said. "we'll have to fight a Cyclops. Polyphemus, the _worst_ of the Cyclopes. And there's only one place his island can be. The Sea of Monsters."

"Where's that?"

Gods, didn't he ever learn? "The Sea of Monsters. The same sea Odysseus sailed through, and Jason, and Aeneas, and all the others."

"You mean the Mediterranean?"

"No. Well, yes… but no." _Jeez, Annabeth, be a little more confusing, why don't you,_ I scolded myself.

"Another straight answer. Thanks," said Percy sarcastically.

"Look, Percy," I tried to explain. "The Sea of Monsters is the sea all heroes sail through on their adventures. It used to be in the Mediterranean, yes. But like everything else, it shifts locations as the West's center of power shifts."

"Like Mount Olympus being above the Empire State Building. "And Hades being under Los Angeles," Percy stated.

"Right," I agreed.

"But a whole sea of monsters, how could you hide something like that? Wouldn't mortals notice weird things happening? Like, ships getting eaten and stuff?"

"Of course they notice. They don't understand, but they do know something is strange about that part of the ocean. The Sea of Monsters is just off the east coast of the U.S. now, just northeast of Florida. The mortals even have a name for it," I replied.

Percy gave me a thoughtful look as he searched his brain for the answer. "The Bermuda Triangle."

"Exactly," I agreed. I don't know why mortals insist on calling is the Bermuda "Triangle", since it is anything but a triangle. More like a circle-ish oval.

"Okay… so at least we know where to look."

"It's still a huge area, Percy. Searching for one tiny island in monster infested waters-"

"Hey, I'm the Son of the Sea God. This is my home turf. How hard can it be?" interrupted Percy.

I raised my eyebrows apprehensively. As much as I wanted to save the camp and Grover, I had promised Chiron on the river Styx that I would do my best to protect him. I don't think "protecting" meant "Hey, lets go into the Sea of Monsters, where most likely something is going to kill us painfully!"

"We'll have to talk to Tantalus, get approval for a quest. He'll say no," I said.

"Not if we tall him tonight at the campfire in front of everybody. The whole camp will hear. They'll pressure him. He won't be able to refuse."

You know, for a Seaweed Brain, he had some pretty devious, but good ideas. "Maybe," I said hopefully. "We'd better get these dishes done. Hand me the lava spray gun, will you?"

At the campfire that night, everyone was in a depressed state of mind after the afternoon crazy bird attack. The Apollo cabin tried to get our spirits up, but you can only take "One-Hundred Bottles of Nectar on the Wall", and "This Land is Minos's Land" so many times before you feel like throwing their lyres into the fire.

When we finished singing, Tantalus stood up. "Well, that was lovely!"

He reached casually for a marshmallow on a stick near the flames, but it leaped, feeling suicidally inclined, and jumped into the fire. I stifled a laugh behind my hand. Marshmallows committing suicide. I loved being a half-blood.

"Now then," continued Tantalus as if he hadn't just murdered a perfectly good marshmallow. "Some announcements about tomorrow's schedule."

"Sir," interrupted Percy.

"Our kitchen boy has something to say?" asked Tantalus coldly. I wanted to slug him in the face.

The kids of Ares snickered. Percy looked at me for help, and I stood up.

He gave me a small smile and said, "We have an idea to save camp."

Dead silence. Well, that was encouraging.

"Indeed," said Tantalus. "Well, if has anything to do with chariots-"

"The Golden Fleece," interrupted Percy before Tantalus could continue. "We know where it is."

Percy, obviously nervous, blurted out the whole story of his dreams and of Grover. I obviously had to step in, because he didn't sound very believable.

"Listen everyone, you've heard the nature power of the Fleece. Imagine what it could do to save camp. If we get it as soon as possible, we can save Thalia's tree _and _strengthen the camps borders. It's the only chance we've got, guys. The Fleece can save the camp. I'm certain of it. " I smiled, satisfied that I had gotten through to most of them.

"Nonsense," commented Tantalus. "We don't need saving."

The campers stared him down.

Tantalus, looking nervous now, said, "Besides, the Sea of Monsters? That's hardly an exact location. You wouldn't even know where to look."

"Yes I would," replied Percy.

Please tell me he wasn't bluffing on a whim. I leaned toward him and whispered, "You would?"

He nodded confidently. I motioned him to say it, because I had no clue what he was talking about.

"30, 31, 75, 12."

"Oo-kay, thank you for sharing those meaningless numbers," Tantalus said.

I had to agree with him. Even if the Gray Sisters had given us those numbers, I had no idea what they meant.

"They're sailing coordinates. Latitude and Longitude. I uh… learned it in social studies."

I was impressed. Maybe he wasn't such a Seaweed Brain after all. Key word _maybe_. "30 degrees, 31 minutes north, 75 degrees, 12 minutes west. He's right! The Gray Sisters gave us those coordinates. That'd be somewhere in the Atlantic, off the coast of Florida. The Sea of Monsters. We need a quest!"

"Wail just a minute," started Tantalus.

The campers interrupted. "We need a quest! We need a quest!"

"It isn't necessary!" insisted Tantalus.

"WE NEED A QUEST! WE NEED A QUEST!" chanted the campers, excited now.

"Fine!" yelled Tantalus. "You brats want a quest?"

"YES!" the campers screamed.

"Very well. I shall authorize a champion to undertake this perilous journey, to retrieve the Golden Fleece and bring it back to camp. Or die trying," relented Tantalus.

Percy looked like a puppy, his eyes lit up with excitement. I smiled. It was sort of cute in a dumb way.

"I will allow our champion to consult the Oracle! And choose two companions for the journey. And I think the choice of the champion is obvious," said Tantalus with a glare at Percy and I. Not a good sign.

"The champion should be one who has earned the camp's respect, who has proven resourceful in the chariot races and courageous in the defense of the camp. You shall lead this quest… Clarisse!"

The Ares Cabin started stomping and shouting, "CLARISSE! CLARISSE!"

The Ares girl stood up, shocked by Tantalus's decision. Then she got that fire in her eyes that always happens when she feels she's important. "I accept the quest!"

"Wait!" called Percy. "Grover is my friend. The dreams came to _me_."

"Sit down!" called an Ares kid. "You had your chance last summer!"

"Yeah, he just wants to be in the spotlight again!"

Clarisse gave Percy a death stare. "I accept the quest! I, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, will save the camp!"

Me and my fellow cabin-mates protested, all of us knowing that a quest for saving the camp shouldn't be put on the shoulders of Clarisse, one of the most vicious of the campers. A quest to kill a terrifying monster, yes, but not finding the Golden Fleece.

The arguing escalated to a marshmallow fight, something pretty serious among demigods, seeing as we didn't get much junk food at an ancient Greek camp.

I had three wads of melted marshmallow stuck in my hair before Tantalus shouted, "Sit down! And I will tell you a ghost story."

Silence ensued. Ghost stories were rare and few between with half-bloods, for most mortal stories were normal stories for us.

"Once upon a time there was a mortal king who was beloved by the Gods!" Tantalus put his hand on his chest, motioning that he was talking about himself, as usual.

"This king was even allowed to feast on Mount Olympus. But when he tried to take back some ambrosia and nectar back to earth to figure out the recipe, just one doggie bad, mind you, the gods punished him. They banned him from their halls forever! His own people mocked him! His children scolded him! And, oh yes, campers, he had horrible children. Children, just, like, you!" He pointed at a different section of campers at each word, being sure to include Percy and I.

"Do you know what he did to his children?" asked Tantalus in a low, dangerous voice. "Do you know how he paid back the gods for their cruel punishment? He invited the Olympians to a feast at his palace, just to show that there were no hard feelings. No one noticed that his children were missing. And when he served the dinner, my dear campers, can you guess what was in the stew?"

Awkward silence. I was sure if anyone answered, Tantalus would turn them into stew himself.

"Oh, the gods punished him the afterlife," continued Tantalus. "They did indeed. But he'd had his moment of satisfaction, didn't he? His children never again spoke back to him or questioned his authority."

_Yeah, 'cause they're all dead, _I thought sarcastically.

"And do you know what?" asked Tantalus. "Rumor has it that the king's spirit still dwells at this very camp, waiting for a chance to take revenge on ungrateful, rebellious children. And so… are there any more complaints before we send Clarisse of on her quest?"

More awkward silence.

Tantalus nodded to Clarisse. "The Oracle, my dear. Go on.

Clarisse squirmed. She didn't want to be the maniac's pet at all. "Sir-"

"Go!" ordered Tantalus.

She bowed and trotted off toward the Big House.

"What about you, Percy Jackson," said Tantalus, spinning around. "Any comments from our dishwasher?"

Percy, thank the gods, stayed silent.

"Good. And let me remind everyone. No one leaves this camp without my permission. Anyone who tries… well, if they survive the attempt, they will be expelled forever, but it won't come to that. The harpies will be enforcing curfew from now on, and they are always hungry! Good night, my dear campers, and sleep well."

It wasn't until about a half an hour after curfew, when I had finally cleaned my hair of marshmallow goo before I heard the screaming of Percy. A scream of pain.

**Now, when I hear people on TV shows talk about ancient Greek mythology, I tend to correct them in my head. You know that Pomegranate drink? It said the Aphrodite brought it to the people, and I caught myself scolding the commercial that it was food for the dead. Is that weird? Hehe Yes, it is. **

**Too bad Percy was talking to Hermes the whole last half of the chapter. Made it shorter then usual.**

**Until I read Percy Jackson, I always thought it was Jason and the Astronauts. I guess we learn something new everyday, huh? Lol. **

**Review!**


	8. Hitchhiking on a Boat

**GR FF! Why must you taunt me so? I wanted to update my stories, but noo, you just had to show the ERROR 1 screen. Bleeh x(**

**Hey, my Fanfictioners! Hows it hangin?**

**This is sort of early, and has nothing to do with FF, but I had too…**

**Happy Birthday Bentley! You are the best brother ever and I love you soo much! 3 3 3 3 3**

**Anyway, back to business… well not business, exactly, but you know what I mean :D**

**Loved the reviews! **

TheReadAndReviewer **I'll try to add more insight to Annabeth's thoughts, but a lot of the time, I don't really realize what I'm typing. It's like everything around me is gone, and all there is is my writing. Gosh, that sounded deep, but anyways, I'll try harder this time.**

Me **and **K-K Coop **I'll try to go back and forth between putting names in front of words as a compromise, kay?**

**And also, **Me, **thanks for the last comment, but I suppose you know the saying "patience is a virtue". Gods, I'm such a hypocrite, I haven't yet learned that lesson either :D**

**And you know what sucks? Last year, in 7****th**** grade, we did the Greek mythology unit right? Well, unfortunately, I hadn't read any the PJO books, and I didn't have all the awesome information that was in the books when I really needed it! Darn you Fates, you made my Greek test hard because I hadn't picked up a PJO book until 8****th**** grade! **

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**Hitchhiking on a Boat**

I ran out of my cabin, following Percy's cries for help. I glanced around, but no harpies had seen me late for curfew. The pounding of giant footsteps reached my ears and I turned to see Tyson running toward me.

"Percy in trouble," he said.

I nodded. "Come on, we need to find him."

We ran to the beach to see Percy just sitting there, watching the waves with a coke in his hand.

"What's going on?" I cried as I reached him. "I heard you calling for help!"

"Me too! Heard you yell, 'Bad things are attacking!'" said Tyson.

"I didn't call you guys," said Percy. "I'm fine."

Well who the heck gave me a panic attack that someone was attacking him?

"But who-" I stopped and stared at the three yellow duffle bags, thermos, and vitamins that were lying next to him. "What-". Odd things to carry around…

"Just listen," said Percy, and he told us about how he met Hermes and how Hermes had given him the duffel bags, and how we had to go hitchhike on a ship.

The sound of screaming harpies reached our ears as Percy finished his story, and I knew we didn't have much time left.

"Percy, we have to do the quest," I said.

"We'll get expelled, you know. Trust me, I'm an expert about getting expelled."

You know, I didn't doubt that statement for a second. He seemed to be the 'New year, new school' type of guy.

"So? If we fail, there won't be any camp to come back to," I replied.

"Yeah, but you promised Chiron-"

Why did he want me to stay? I had to get out of here and do _something_. "I promised I'd keep you from danger! I can only do that by coming with you! Tyson can stay behind and tell them-"

"I want to go!" said Tyson.

"No!" I think I was starting to have a panic attack. There was no way a Cyclops was going on a quest with us. "I mean… Percy, come on. You know that's impossible."

I used my puppy eyes and stared up at him. They had come in handy when I had gone to my dads for they year. What can I say, they were really helpful sometimes.

Percy thought for a minute. "We can't leave him. Tantalus would punish him for us being gone."

Curse the gods, he chose Tyson over me again!

"Percy." I barely kept my anger and panic down. "We're going to Polyphemus's island! Polyphemus is a S-i-k… a C-y-k…" Dang it, curse my dyslexia! I stamped my foot in frustration. "You know what I mean!"

"Tyson can go if he wants to," insisted Percy.

"Want to!" Tyson clapped his hands.

I glared at Percy. But what choice did I have? Without him, we would never reach the Sea of Monsters, let alone fight and defeat Polyphemus.

"All right. How do we get to that ship?" I asked.

"Hermes said my father would help."

"Well then, Seaweed Brain, what are you waiting for?" I pushed him into the sea.

"Um, Dad?" said Percy uncertainly. "How's it going?"

Gods, Percy, there was no time for small talk! "Percy, we're in a hurry!" I whispered.

"We need your help," said Percy loudly, and I cringed. The harpies would hear that for sure. "We need to get to that ship, like, before we get eaten and stuff, so…"

Yes, Percy. Great way to put it. (Serious sarcasm going on here.)

The sound of the chicken-witches got closer, and I was pretty sure that if help didn't come soon, we would be playing a game of Hungry Hungry Harpies.

Suddenly the waves burst open, and beautiful hippocampi leaped out of the water, half-horse, half-fish.

"Fish ponies!" cried Tyson.

"Hippocampi," I breathed. "They're beautiful."

One of them whinnied, and nudged me appreciatively.

"We'll admire them later, come on!" urged Percy.

"There!" screeched a harpy from behind. "Bad children out of cabins! Snack time for lucky harpies!"

_Oh, crap_, I thought. I looked behind me to find five of the hag-chickens running, not very fast of course, but running toward us, practically drooling at the thought of having a demigod barbeque. And let me tell you, being turned into a steak is not at the top of my to-do list for the day.

"Tyson! Grab a duffel bag!" yelled Percy.

Tyson was in another one of his trances, staring open-mouthed at the hippocami.

"Tyson!"

"Uh?"

"Come on!" yelled Percy.

I swatted Tyson on the arm and snapped my fingers in front of his face. Tyson shook his head, grabbed a bag, and leaped onto the largest hippocampus, obviously Cyclops size, and I thanked Poseidon that he had thought of getting a giant one so that Tyson could keep up with us.

I swung a duffel bag around my shoulders, and leaped onto the one that had nudged me affectionately before.

"Giddyup!" yelled Percy. I didn't know if he thought he was in a Western movie or what, but I squeezed my legs to urge the horse to race after him.

The harpies cried out after us, mad that their midnight snacks had gotten away, but the sound slowly faded as we sped across the water, the outline of the cruise ship becoming larger and larger.

I saw the name _Princess Andromeda _thankfully in black and white, making it easy to read with my dyslexia. The masthead was a girl dressed in ancient Greek clothing, screaming her head off, and I remembered the story of how her parents chained her to a cliff for a sacrifice to a sea monster. Personally, I didn't blame her. If I was chained to rock a hundred feet in the air, with a monster chomping at my feet, I would be screaming pretty loud too.

What cruise ship wanted a girl screaming in terror for a masthead, I didn't know, but the sounds of people and bright lights told me the people on the boat didn't care.

I looked up, my neck aching at the tall ship. The first was at least a story from the water. "How do we get aboard?" I called to Percy.

He shrugged, but our sea-horses were leading us to a ladder that was bolted to the side of the ship.

"You first," called Percy, and I jumped onto the side of the boat, gripping the rungs with my arms and lifting myself up. My hippocampus neighed a goodbye and disappeared under the waves.

Percy waited until I had gotten a few feet up, and grappled for the first rung, and pulled himself up with a guy grunt.

Guys think they're so tough when they grunt, but girls can easily do the same thing without having to make the low deep sound. It was just a thing to make guys look all manly and cool.

I glanced down to see Tyson's hippocampus doing three-sixties and backwards flips while Tyson yelled with glee.

"Tyson, shh! Come on, big guy!" said Percy.

"Can't we take Rainbow?" asked Tyson.

Oh, that was manly. A Cyclops naming a hippocampus Rainbow.

"Rainbow?" asked Percy incredulously.

The animal whinnied, as if he was agreeing that he liked his new name.

"Um, we have to go. Rainbow, well… he can't climb ladders," explained Percy.

"I will miss you, Rainbow!" cried Tyson. Gods, he was emotional.

"Maybe we will see him again sometime," said Percy hesitantly.

"Oh, please! Tomorrow!" cried Tyson happily, and with a last pat for Rainbow, he jumped on the ladder. The hippocampus whinnied and back-flipped into the sea.

The ladder brought us to the maintenance deck, with unfortunately, a locked door, but after ten minutes, me cursing Greek words like σκατά and μαλακίες, and some very odd looks from Percy and Tyson, I got the lock open, and we were on the ship.

You know cruise ships were always bustling with people, going in and out of their cabins, sunbathing, whatever, so I had been think that we were going to have to go all camo, and sneak around. But by the time we passed, like, forty doors and found nary a soul, I was pretty sure that this place was deserted.

"It's a ghost ship," murmured Percy, echoing my thoughts.

"No," argued Tyson. "Bad smell."

I frowned, sniffing the air. "I don't smell anything."

"Cyclopes are satyrs. They can smell monsters. Right, Tyson?" said Percy.

Tyson nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay," I said. "What do you smell?"

"Something bad," replied Tyson.

Well, that was helpful. "Great. That clears things up," I said sarcastically.

We walked out to a floor with a swimming pool the size of a football field, a rock-climbing wall, and a putt-putt course. I looked at the climbing wall, interested, until I realized that there was no lava. Mortals had no sense of fun.

"We need a hiding place," decided Percy. "Somewhere safe to sleep."

Now normally I would advise highly against sleeping on a deserted ship with seemingly no one on it, but somehow it was still driving, and a screaming girl as a masthead, but the night had been long. It must have been at least one in the morning by now.

"Sleep," I agreed, then yawned at the thought of a nice comfy bed.

We found an empty cabin with the door open, which I thought was kind of suspicious, and that there was a basket of treats with a note that said, "Enjoy your cruise!"

I reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. Why on earth had she decided to drink the bottle that said "drink me"? I mean, didn't they teach people in mortal schools not to touch, let alone eat something that you weren't sure what it was? I mean, in the real world, Alice probably at some drug-spiked pastry and thought she grew tall and shrunk to the size.

I opened my duffel bag to find clothes, toiletries, money, both mortal and godly, camp rations and, thank the gods, Hermes especially, my invisibility hat.

"I'll be next door," I told the two guys. "Don't eat or drink _anything._"

I did not want to come in and find Percy or Tyson turned into a bunny rabbit or something.

"You think this place is enchanted?" asked Percy with a frown.

"I don't know. Something isn't right. Just… be careful." I warned, and closed the door that combined our rooms. I made sure that the one leading out into the hall was locked too.

I quickly took a bigger inventory. We had about a week of rations, depending on how much we ate. Then I took a shower and flopped into my bed, not bothering to brush my hair. What was the point, it was going to get messed up tomorrow anyway. I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, and the rest of the night slipped by in the blink of an eye.

"_Good morning, passengers! We'll be at sea all day today! Excellent weather for the poolside mambo party!"_

I groaned. Gods, it felt like I had only slept for five minutes.

"_Don't forget million-dollar bingo in the Kraken Lounge at one o'clock, and for our special guests, disemboweling practice on the Promenade!"_

I sat up fully awake. _Disemboweling practice? _Not exactly what I'd call a normal activity on a cruise ship.

I stuck my head into Percy and Tyson's room. "Disemboweling practice?"

They shrugged at me, as confused as I was, and we got dressed, gathered our stuff, and headed out into the cabin hall.

When we reached the pool area, I stopped short. Where had all these people come from? There were families and older couples lounging, even though it only had to be eight or nine in the morning.

A family passed us, and the dad said, "We are on a cruise. We are having fun."

"Yes," said their three kids, at the same time. "We are having a blast. We will swim in the pool."

Oh, my gods, it was like the invasion of the Pod People.

"Good morning," said a crew member. "We are all enjoying ourselves on the Princess Andromeda. Have a nice day."

"Percy, this is weird," I whispered to him. "They're all in some kind of trance."

I should have been expecting monsters, I know, and part of me was. I just wasn't ready to see a giant hellhound helping itself to the eggs at the breakfast buffet table.

And the weirdest part was that people didn't even seem to mind. Either the Mist was stronger than I thought, or the passengers were possessed. Even mortals should have seen a dog munching on some scrambled eggs.

"Not hungry anymore," moaned Tyson. I think my stomach agreed with him as I watched a couple scoop up a spoonful of hellhound slobber-covered scrambled eggs.

"Ssssix more joined yesssterday," hissed a voice, and I instantly knew it was a dracaena. What other mythical creature could it be?

I gestured maniacally toward the nearest door, in other words, the girl's bathroom.

We ducked inside, and the sound of slithering snakes filed past. Yep, dracaena. Just our luck.

"Yessss," replied another. "He drawsss them. Ssssoon we will be ssstrong."

Well, that was comforting. I had a bad feeling that "He" was Kronos.

The snake sounds faded, and I turned to Percy. "We have to get out of here."

"You think I want to be in the girl's bathroom?"

Even in our dire situation, I almost laughed. "I mean the ship, Percy, we have to get off the ship!"

"Smells bad," agreed Tyson. "And dogs eat all the eggs. Annabeth is right. We must leave the restroom and the ship."

Then I froze, the sickenly familiar sound of a voice reaching my ears. "-only a matter of time. Don't push me, Agrius!"

It was Luke. My heart flipped, despite my fear.

"I'm not pushing you!" argued another voice. "I'm just saying, if this gamble doesn't pay off-"

"It'll pay off," snapped Luke, and my heart twisted. The coldness in his voice, it was almost painful. "They'll take the bait. Now, come, we've got to get to the admiralty suite and check on the casket."

Their voices faded as they walked.

"Leave now?" asked Tyson.

Percy and I exchanged a silent agreement.

"We can't," Percy told Tyson.

"We have to find out what Luke is up to. And if possible, we're going to beat him up, bind him in chains, and drag him to Mount Olympus," I said.

And that's when things went down the drain like sewage in the toilet.

**Okay, guys, please don't look up the Greek words I put in here, because, well, they aren't exactly what I'd call "Words that demigods should use in English language."**

**This probably backfired, making you want to check it out, but I just wanted to warn you.**

**Haha I had to put in "Nary a soul" just because it sounded all fancy-like :D**

**Hope ya'll liked! (I'm not really from the south, but I like saying ya'll)**

**Review!**


	9. Kronos is a Freaking Puzzle

**Hey, guys, sorry about not updating on Wednesday, but you know, duty calls! Well, I don't have a duty, but this week was busy. Completely swamped with homework, uggh.**

**Also, got my bottom braces on Thursday and have been moaning in pain and starvation for a few days haha. You have no idea the torture of watching your friends eat grilled cheese in front of you until your teeth feel like they are trying to pull out of your freaking gums. Gods, I sound stuck up. A bunch of people are suffering so much more then I am. Sorry suffering people!**

**But, I'm back, for now.**

**This will be my last update until next Sunday, because I have April Vacation! I will be back soon! So just wait it out. I may even update two chapters **wink wink** haha.**

**69 reviews so far! hehe... 69... gods, I'm a sick-minded person sometimes... Anyways, **

proud-daughter-of-athena **I totally what you mean. I was walking in the hall in school, when a 5th grader dropped their tray of food. I won't go into details, but I was pretty sure that he knew more swears then I do. I mean, I'll occasionally curse, but not very bad, and not very often. **

Me **Haha, I sometimes make subtle hints about Greek facts, the strange person I am, haha!**

**Well, on with the story! **

**Oh, plus, my grammar and spellcheck must be like, peeling a freaking banana or something, because its too busy to underline words and grammar mistakes, so there may be a few more. Anyone know how to fix this? It is for Microsoft Word 2003.**

**Plus, one more thing. Check out Mythical Words's stories! I beta for her Percy Jackson ones, and they are really good! :D **

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**Kronos is a Freaking Puzzle**

I tried to volunteer for going alone with my Yankees hat, since Tyson and Percy would probably give us away. They were well, in a nice way to put it, not the quietest types of people.

Of course, Percy wanted to stick together, so we didn't lose each other. "All go, or none go," was his exact words. What was this, The Three Musketeers, demigod style? Sheesh, I could take care of myself!

"Nobody!" pleaded Tyson, but Percy and I didn't listen. Which, when I looked back on it, wasn't smart. But hey, Luke was there, and I hadn't had a hint of where he was for over a year now. There might be no other chance to get crucial information! And, well, I thought I could maybe get him to come back, become the Luke I knew as a kid.

Tyson followed us, biting his disgusting, dirty nails. I wondered idly if he ever took a shower, or even knew much about the proper use of hygiene products. We stopped at the cabin rooms where we had slept the night before, and gathered all our stuff. I knew we wouldn't be staying on this ship for another night. I made Tyson carry our stuff, because it was easier.

"Wait, he shouldn't have to carry everything," Percy argued.

I sighed. He really needed to learn about the strength of Cyclopes. "They can carry three duffel bags as easily as you or I can carry a backpack. It's fine. Besides, I need to scout ahead." I took out my invisibility cap and put it on, quickly checking back at Percy and Tyson before going into spy mode.

I heard the James Bond theme song mixing in with Indiana Jones as I avoided glassy-eyed people, following the very helpful "You are here" signs. I turned a corner, about ten yards from where Percy and Tyson walked, and almost ran into two demigods wielding swords.

"Crap," I muttered to myself, and raced back to Percy and Tyson.

"Hide!" I hissed, and pushed them into the supply closet, which thankfully, was right next to us.

The sound of footsteps reached our ears, and the conversation drifted through the door. "You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?"

"Yeah, it's awesome." My eyes widened as I recognized the voice, and I squeezed Percy's arm, hard. He flinched, whether in pain or surprise, I didn't know, but I managed a small smile.

"I hear they got two more coming." My eyes narrowed as Chris Rodriguez's voice took on a sinister tone. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man. No contest!"

And with that, the voices faded, as they walked down the hall. Great. They had a freaking Aethiopian drakon with them. It came from Ethiopia, obviously, from the name, and had rock-hard scales. Of course, it also had to breathe fire, and it could paralyze you with its eyes. At least it didn't spit green, very poisonous goo like the Lydian drakon. That would suck if Kronos had one of those.

"That was Chris Rodriguez!" I hissed at Percy, taking off my invisibility cap. "You remember, from Cabin Eleven?"

Percy stared at me thoughtfully for a second, and I waited patiently for him to process the information I had just given him. I learned from last summer that there was no rushing Percy when he was trying to get a handle on new info.

"What's another half-blood doing here?" he asked.

I shook my head. I didn't even want to know.

We opened the supply closet door, and I peeked out, my Yankees hat back on. Thankfully, no one was out there, and we continued our journey toward the admiralty suite.

As we got closer, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, the ever stronger sense of evil turning the air cold and well, evil feeling. Not really another way to explain it.

I took off my cap as I looked down at the shopping center.

"Percy, look," I whispered.

Down below, in front of the candy shop, which was ironically the last place you would expect monsters to be, was a group consisting of two hellhounds, a dozen Laistrygonian giants, and some dracaenae. Wonderful. How many evil, killing, heartless monsters were on this cruise ship?

"Scythian Dracaenae. Dragon women," I explained to Percy in a low voice. He shivered. I wasn't surprised. It wasn't every day you saw some ugly women with two tails for legs and had claws. Trust me. It doesn't happen often.

They surrounded someone in Greek armor who was stabbing ruthlessly at a dummy that wore a Camp Half-Blood orange t-shirt on it. My stomach flipped as I realized that the next victim that the Greek warrior person attacked could well be one of my friends or siblings.

I turned away, half expecting to barf.

"Come on," said Percy, noticing my probably green or pale face. "The sooner we find Luke, the better."

We kept going down the hall, and I thanked the gods that there were a bunch of signs everywhere. The cruise ship was huge, and I wasn't one known for figuring out where I was going. Example, when I went to go live with Dad again, we decided to drive over to Moores Creek National Battlefield, so I could look at where according to mortals, the patriots beat the loyalists even though it the sides were uneven, but really, that was where the leaders of the patriot troop, obviously demigods, had attacked the Eale, or Yale, whichever spelling, which was in league with a rogue demigod to destroy Camp Half-Blood. But anyways, I had the map, and somehow, we ended up on a ferry to Block Island, off the coast from Long Island.

I don't know what happened or how, but my dad never let me touch a map again. And truth be told, I didn't blame him.

We walked down the hall, and about thirty feet in front of us, there were some important looking giant doors. Tyson stopped.

"Voices inside," he said.

"You can hear that far?" asked Percy.

Tyson closed his eyes and concentrated. His voice changed, echoing Luke's low bass sound. "-the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."

I flinched, remembering how I had heard my fathers voice from the Cyclops that captured Luke Thalia and I all those years ago.

Tyson's voice changed again, taking on another person. "You really think the old horseman is gone for good?"

Tyson/Luke laughed. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw.

I shivered. "Stop that, Tyson! How do you do that? It's creepy!"

Tyson glanced at me, confused. "Just listening."

"Keep going," urged Percy. "What else are they saying?"

Personally, I didn't want to know. The stranger in the room began talking again. "Quiet!"

Luke/Tyson said, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, right outside."

Oh, dang it, they heard us! Unfortunately, we were too late.

"Run!" yelled Percy.

The doors flew open, and I saw Luke, with two hairy giants holding very pointy looking javelins, aimed right at us.

"Well," said Luke evilly. "If it isn't my two favorite cousins. Come right in."

Oh, crap.

The room was beautiful, with huge windows overlooking the sea, some comfy looking sofas, a Persian rug, and a table loaded with junk food. But, sadly, that was overruled by the strong sense of evil, a gold casket, and some pretty scary looking monsters.

"Well, a little nicer than Cabin Eleven, huh?" asked Luke, spreading his arms.

He had changed, not only from cute funny facial expression to evil grin, but had tidied up, wearing dress-code like clothes and had cut his hair like he was about to go into the army or something.

Only the scar seemed familiar, a token of remembrance from his battle with the dragon guarding to golden apples.

"Sit," invited Luke, and with a flick of his hand, some chairs pulled up. Okay, first, how in the world did Luke get super powers? I mean, demigods were a lot better and stronger than mortals, but only the Hecate cabin could make objects move. And second, why on earth would we sit? It was like, the oldest movie trick in the book, where the hero sits down and ropes come flying out and strap us down.

Okay, maybe the chair thing probably wouldn't have happened, but you can never be too careful. So we didn't sit.

The hairy giants still had their javelins pointed at us, so I guess Luke thought introductions were to be in order.

"Where are my manners? These are my assistants, Agrius and Oreius. Perhaps you've heard of them."

Of course I knew the story, but telling Luke I did wasn't going to get me anywhere.

"You don't know the story?" asked Luke innocently. "Their mother… Well it's sad, really. Aphrodite ordered the young woman to fall in love. She refused and ran to Artemis for help. Artemis let her become one of her maiden huntresses, but Aphrodite got her revenge. She bewitched the young woman into falling in love with a bear. When Artemis found out, she abandoned the girl with disgust. Typical of the gods, wouldn't you say? They fight one another and poor humans get caught in the middle. The girl's twin sons here, Agrius and Oreius, have no love for Olympus. They like half-bloods well enough, though…"

"For lunch," chimed in Agrius, the voice I heard talking to Luke.

"Hehe! Hehe!" laughed Oreius. He kept laughing like that, just "Hehe!" for about ten seconds, until finally Agrius interrupted.

"Shut up, you idiot! Go punish yourself!" ordered Agrius.

Oreius whimpered and began banging his head on the wall. If I wasn't scared for my life I would have been laughing about how much this was like Dobby from Harry Potter.

Luke didn't seem to care though. He flopped on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table. "Well, Percy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How's your mom? How's school?" He talked as if he hadn't nearly killed Percy, and as if he hadn't betrayed the gods.

"You poisoned Thalia's tree," stated Percy.

"Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?"

So what? SO WHAT? How could he say that about Thalia? She saved his miserable, evil, stinking life by sacrificing herself! How could he say "so what"?

"How could you!" I exploded. "Thalia saved your life! Our lives! How could you dishonor her-"

"I didn't dishonor her! The gods dishonored her, Annabeth," said Luke, and right now, I hated the way my heart flipped as he said my name. "If Thalia were alive, she'd be on my side!"

"Liar!" I hissed, putting all my hate and hurt and betrayal into my voice.

"If you knew what was coming, you'd understand-"

"I understand you want to destroy camp! You're a monster!" I yelled back.

Luke shook his head in mock sadness. "The gods have blinded you. Can't you imagine a world without them, Annabeth? What good is that ancient history you study? Three thousand years of baggage! The West is rotten to the core! It has to be destroyed. Join me! We can start the world anew. We could use your intelligence, Annabeth!"

Despite how much I hated him, I could see it in my mind. A new world that I designed, a new one that would last forever. No pollution, a better camp, world peace. But I shook it out of my brain. Anything the Luke said was a lie. He wanted to destroy Olympus. But still… The thought of it simply wouldn't leave my mind.

"Because you have none of your own!" I answered, hiding my guilt of thinking about what Luke had offered.

Luke's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I know you, Annabeth. You deserve better then tagging along on some hopeless quest to save the camp. Half-Blood Hill will be overrun with monsters within the month. The heroes who survive will have no choice but to join us or be hunted to extinction. You really want to be on the losing team… with company like this?" Luke gestured toward Tyson.

"Hey!" protested Percy.

"Travelling with a Cyclops! Talk about dishonoring Thalia's memory! I'm surprised at you, Annabeth. You of all people-"

"Stop it!" I cried, on the verge of tears.

_Don't cry, don't cry,_ I urged myself. Don't give him the satisfaction of making you upset. But the sinister sound of the Cyclops's voice mimicking my father's wouldn't leave my head. I buried my face in my hands.

"Leave her alone," Percy yelled at Luke, and I was glad he was on my side. "And leave Tyson out of this."

"Oh, yeah, I heard. Your father claimed him," said Luke contemptuously.

I looked up at Luke, then Percy. How did Luke know what had happened at camp?

"Yes, Percy. I know all about that. And about your plan to find the Fleece. What were those coordinates again… 30, 31, 75, 12? You see, I still have friends at camp to keep me posted," said Luke.

"Spies, you mean."

Luke shrugged carelessly. "How many insults from your father can you stand, Percy? You think he's grateful to you? You think Poseidon cares for you anymore than he cares for this monster?" he looked pointedly at Tyson.

Tyson growled dangerously, a feral sound. Someone was offended.

Luke chuckled. "The gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what's in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?"

Dang it. How did Luke know the prophecy? Now Percy was going to bug me forever if we ever got out of here alive.

"I know what I need to know," said Percy finally. "Like, who my enemies are."

"Then you're a fool."

"Percy is not a fool!" said Tyson, and he smashed a chair to kindling.

Before we could react, Tyson charged at Luke. His fists came up, ready to hit Luke though the floor with the force of his blow.

I turned away. This was not something I wanted to see.

But I heard nothing. I turned to see that the bear twins had caught Tyson's arms. Gods, they were strong. They pushed back, and Tyson was thrown back across the room to where we stood.

"Too bad, Cyclops. Looks like my grizzly friends together are more than a match to your strength. Maybe I should let them-"

"Luke, listen to me. Your father sent us," Percy interrupted.

Luke face turned red, like tomato sauce. "Don't. Even. Mention. Him."

"He told us to take this boat. I thought it was just for a ride, but he sent us here to find you. He told me he won't give up on you, no matter how angry you are."

"Angry?" screeched Luke. "Give up on me? He abandoned me, Percy. I want Olympus destroyed. Every throne crushed to rubble. You tell Hermes it's going to happen, too. Each time a half-blood joins us, the Olympians grow weaker, and we grow stronger. He grows stronger."

Luke pointed to the golden casket and I got a seriously bad feeling. Were Kronos's remains in there? Or rather, the pieces of himself? Yep, Kronos the puzzle. Terrifying.

"So?" said Percy, not realizing that the Titan of Time was five feet away. "What's so special…"

Then his eyes widened in shock. "Whoa, you don't mean-"

"He is re-forming," confirmed Luke. "Little by little, we are calling his life force out of the pit. With every recruit, another small piece appears."

"That's disgusting," I said, wrinkling my nose.

Luke sneered at me. "Your mother was born from Zeus's split skull, Annabeth. I wouldn't talk."

Well, he had me there.

"Soon there will be enough of the Titan Lord so that we can make him whole again. We will piece together a new body from him, a work worthy of the forges of Hephaestus."

"You're insane," I told Luke.

"Join us and you'll be rewarded," continued Luke, as if I had said nothing. "We have powerful friends, sponsors rich enough to buy this cruise ship and much more. Percy, your mother would never have to work again. You can buy her a mansion. You can have power, fame, whatever you want. Annabeth, you can realize your dream of becoming an architect. You can build a monument to last a thousand years. A temple to the lords of the next age!"

"Go to Tartarus," I answered. I was to become a famous architect, I was going to do with my abilities alone, not some rich sap getting me the best things possible.

"A shame," sighed Luke.

He picked up a remote with a red button in the middle and pressed it. I half expected the speakers to say "Self destruct in T minus ten, nine"

But only two mortals walked in, their eyes glassy and staring at nothing.

"Ah, good security," Luke said. "I'm afraid we have some stowaways."

"Yes, sir," they replied in a daze.

Luke turned to one of the bear twins, Oreius. "It's time to feed the Aethiopian drakon. Take these fools below and show them how it's done."

Well, that didn't sound particularly pleasant.

"Hehe," answered Oreius, drooling.

"Let me go, too," growled Agrius. "My brother is worthless. That Cyclops-"

"He is no threat," replied Luke. "Agrius, stay here. We have important matters to discuss."

"But-"

"Oreius, don't fail me. Stay in the hold and make sure the drakon is properly fed."

The bear monster nodded, and poked us with his javelin.

"Ow," I muttered, and was rewarded with another poke.

We were herded down the hall, the menacing presence of Oreius urging us forward.

As we reached the open deck, I tensed. If we were going to escape, it had to be now.

"Now," said Percy, echoing my thoughts. Huh, we must be mind readers or something.

Tyson spun and slugged Oreius in the gut, sending him ten yards into the swimming pool.

"We are not having a blast in the pool!" the children in the pool said in unison, climbing out.

A security guard took out his police stick, but I smashed foot into his chest, just under the ribs, knocking the wind out of him. He fell to the floor, gasping like a fish out of water.

Another ran to a red alarm button.

"Stop him!" I shouted, but it was too late. The alarms came on, and lights flashed.

"Lifeboat!" screamed Percy.

We raced to the canvas covered boats, tearing frantically at the covers. When we finally got them off, monsters and dreamy-looking security guards had streamed from below deck, and were racing toward us, pushing mortals aside with a shove.

"How do you launch this thing?" I screamed over the pandemonium.

"Get in," answered Percy, and he uncapped Riptide.

I jumped in, frantically trying to get the boat to release from the rope.

"Hold on!" yelled Percy, and he swung his sword in an arc, snapping the ropes, and we plummeted down into the cold ocean.

I screamed in freefall, arrows passing overhead.

And yet, it wasn't even lunchtime. Great start to my normal demigod day.

**Oh yes! Chapter 9! Whatcha think, my fellow Fanfictioners? The beginning was kinda boring, but oh well, it got better. I debated having Annabeth yelling "Hasta lavista!" as they plummeted toward the ocean, but I would be screaming my freaking head off if it happened to my, so I just tweaked it a bit.**

**The next chapter to Bianca's Story will be in tomorrow. **

**Review!**


	10. Donut Shops Are Evil

**Hey, buddies! Long time, no update, eh?**

**Schools gunna be back on Monday, uggh, so lets end this vacation on a happy note with TWO more chapters for both PJO fanfics! Whooo! :D**

**Before I start in, I have to get this out of the way. You guys know the books Maximum Ride correct? Well, I just finished the books Max, Fang, and Angel yesterday, and I won't go into spoilers, but I will say this. (Yes, I'm about to talk to a fictional character. Deal with it.) Fang! How on earth could you do that! Grr! It was perfect. P.E.R.F.E.C.T! But noo, you just had to go ruin it. And Dylan, go over to Maya. You are both clones. Instant connection. **

**Okay, sorry about that, but usually when I write, I write what I am feeling at that moment, so my mood goes into the fanfic. Ex: If I'm in a bad mood, Annabeth and Bianca are in a bad mood, equaling depressing update. So finishing my ranting, lets have this chapter on a happier note. **

**Well, after that little explosion of emotion, I've decided to do a Maximum Ride fanfic called ****Perfect For Each Other**** so check it out!**

**And guess, what? I had a taste of ambrosia! Haha, well it was called ambrosia, and it was delicious! Yogurt, marshmallows, grapes, mandarin oranges, and pineapple all mixed up and topped with toast coconut shavings. Yum!**

**I'm writing this in the car, so no replies to reviews, sorry!**

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**Donut Shops Are Evil**

We splash-landed in the water, the sounds of monsters running over to the edge getting closer.

"Thermos!" screamed Percy.

Yep, dire situation of death, and Percy wanted some soup from a thermos. I didn't think it was the time for a food break.

"What?" I screeched. I was gripping the boat's handles for dear life as we bobbed along in the water.

Tyson opened a duffel bag and took the thermos out, handing it to Percy as arrows and javelins whooshed past us.

"Hang on!" he screamed, gripping the boats side with one hand, about to twist the cap.

"I am hanging on!" I yelled back.

"Tighter!"

Tyson grabbed Percy and I by the collar of our shirts, and Percy opened the thermos about fifteen degrees. We flew sideways, then began hopping over waves like skipping stones as Percy redirected the wind.

The sounds of angry monsters faded quickly behind us, and I glanced back to see it disappearing along the horizon.

I suggested we send an Iris Message to Chiron, to tell him the news about Luke, what with the sea-spray creating a pretty good mist.

Percy handed the thermos to Tyson while I dug out a gold drachma from one of the duffel bags.

"Oh, goddess, accept my offering. Chiron, centaur, old Camp Activities Director of Camp Half-Blood," I told the mist and threw the drachma in.

It disappeared, an image forming among the rainbows, showing flashing lights, rock music, and Chiron's face. If I knew anything, I knew that Chiron wouldn't be near a rock concert unless his life depended on it.

Percy and I told him about Luke, and how we escaped. Between the blaring music and the sound of the boat skimming along the water, I don't know how much Chiron actually heard, but there was no other option.

"Percy, you have to watch out for-" "Ieeyieiyie!" Chiron's voice was muted as someone in the background started yelling like a Native American.

"What?" yelled Percy.

"Curse my relatives!" shouted Chiron, and he ducked as a plate flew by. "Annabeth, you shouldn't have let Percy leave camp! But if you do get the Fleece-"

"Whoooo! Yeah, baby!"

I really did not want to know why the centaur said that.

"-Miami. I'll try to keep watch-" shouted Chiron.

Then our call was disconnected, probably by a centaur trying to do the worm. Trust me, I've seen it done, and it's not pretty.

An hour later, we spotted land, and I jumped up in surprise. "That's Virginia Beach! Oh my gods, how did the Princess Andromeda travel so far overnight? That's like-"

"Five hundred and thirty nautical miles," finished Percy.

Okay, if I knew anything, it was that Percy was not one for judging distances. Ex, game of capture the flag last summer, he said I was about fifty yards from the nearest enemy. I believed him, probably not smart on my part, but two seconds later, Clarisse tackled me. Unless she was wearing super shoes or something, there was no way she could have gone fifty yards in a few seconds. I stayed the lookout from then on.

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"I-I'm not sure," he stuttered, looking confused.

I thought for a second. Percy was the son of the sea god, right? Emphasis on sea, so I guess he knew wherever the heck we were whenever he was in contact with the ocean. Well, no need to ask for directions anymore.

"Percy, what's our position?" I asked.

"Thirty-six degrees, forty-four minutes north, seventy-six degrees, two minutes west," he answered immediately. "Whoa, how did I know that?"

I smiled. "Because of your dad. When you're at sea, you have perfect bearings. That is so cool."

Couldn't my mom give me special powers? Goddess of wisdom, yeah, she probably decided putting power n my hands was a bad idea, but her sacred animal was also the owl. I should totally get to fly.

A coast guard boat drove by, the driver looking at us strangely. Not good. I imagined what our conversation would be like.

'Kids, could please explain why you are driving an emergency boat at over one hundred miles an hour?'

'Oh, you see, sir, we were just looking for the Sea of Monsters, where we will be going on a dangerous journey to a man eating Cyclops and will probably die in the process.'

'Well, good luck, then, be on your way!'

I suspected they would more likely put us in an institution for crazy kids.

"Other boat is coming," warned Tyson.

I looked back to see the coast guard turning around, lights flashing. Dang it, why couldn't mortals just leave us alone?

"We can't let them catch us, they'll ask too many questions," said Percy.

I remembered a hiding spot Luke, Thalia and I had made. "Keep going into Chesapeake Bay," I advised. "I know a place we can hide."

Percy looked at me and shrugged, letting more air out of the thermos, and we rocketed toward the bay, leaving the Coast Guard boat far behind.

I directed Percy to the mouth of a river leading into the bay. I spotted it. "There, past the sandbar."

We beached the boat, and I had flashbacks of Luke, Thalia and I laughing as we made our shelter, eating around a fire, Luke and Thalia practicing fighting.

Luke, back then, he was so carefree, so full of life and spirit, always ready to help out with something. I missed the old Luke. I didn't recognize him anymore. But I knew, somewhere, deep inside, the old Luke was hiding, surrounded by the hate of his father, and the hate of Olympus.

I stepped up to the shelter lifting back the vines that hid the entrance. Everything was still in here, the lamp, the extra weapons, the sleeping bags.

Percy looked around in awe. "A half-blood hideout. You made this place?"

"Thalia and I," I replied. "…and Luke."

Percy's eyes darkened. Was he jealous? No, that wasn't right… was it? Was it his worry for me that I saw, or something more. Right now, I didn't even care. I was too caught up in flashbacks.

"So… you don't think Luke will look for us here?"

I shook my head. "We made a dozen safe houses like this. I doubt Luke remembers where they are. Or cares."

I dropped on the blankets layered on the floor, digging through my duffel bag, trying to give the whole, 'Don't talk to me or I'll bite your head off,' body language.

"Um Tyson?" asked Percy. "Would you mind scouting around outside? Like, look for a wilderness convenience store or something?"

"Convenience store?" asked Tyson.

"Yeah, for snacks. Powdered donuts or something. Just don't go too far."

"Powdered donuts. I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness. Here donuts!" said Tyson as he walked out.

Percy plopped down in front of me. Great. Talk about feelings time. Didn't he have anything better to do?

"Hey, I'm sorry, you know, about seeing Luke," he said.

Well, sorry doesn't cut it, Seaweed Brain. "It's not your fault," I replied, taking out my knife and cleaning it with a rag.

"He let us go too easily," said Percy, trying to keep a conversation going.

I nodded, but didn't look up. "I was thinking the same thing. What we overheard him say about a gamble, and 'they'll take the bait,'… I think he was talking about us."

"The Fleece is the bait? Or Grover?" he asked.

Sheesh, I may have been the daughter of Athena, but I wasn't all knowing.

"I don't know, Percy. Maybe he wants the Fleece for himself. Maybe he's hoping we'll do the hard work, and then he can steal it from us. I just can't believe he would poison the tree," I said, tracing the patterns of the blanket below me.

"What did he mean, that Thalia would have been on his side?" asked Percy.

I felt like slugging Percy in the face. I was in a bad mood, and now was not the time to talk about what side Thalia would have been on.

"He's wrong."

"You don't sound so sure," Percy said.

I glared at him, making my eyes as cold as possible. He glanced nervously at the knife I had in my hand. Well, I wouldn't stab him, for Zeus's sake… maybe. But that's not the point. I stuck the knife in the dirt, hoping to calm him, even by a little.

"Percy, you know who you remind me of most? Thalia. You guys are so much alike it's scary. I mean, either you would have been best friends or you would've strangled each other."

It was true. That was one of the reasons I knew I could trust Percy with my life. They were so alike, it would be hard not to be friends. Then a disturbing thought came to me. They could have become more then friends, being so similar. For some reason, that sent a chill down my back. But why? I must have been having post dramatic stress or something, so I shook it off.

"Let's go with 'best friends'," said Percy and I smiled. Exactly what Thalia would have said.

"Thalia got angry with her dad sometimes. So do you. Would you turn against Olympus because of that?" I asked.

"No," was his immediate answer.

I nodded, satisfied. "Okay, then. Neither would she."

Percy looked at me thoughtfully, and I wondered idly what he was thinking about.

"So what did Luke mean about Cyclopes?" he asked finally. "He said you of all people-"

I stiffened. The sinister eyes of the Cyclops flashed in my mind. "I know what he said. He… he was talking about the real reason Thalia died."

Percy was silent, waiting for me to go on. He knew it was hard for me to talk about this subject.

I took a deep breath. "You can never trust a Cyclops, Percy. Six years ago, on the night Grover was leading us to Half-Blood Hill-"

The hut creaked and I spun, ripping my knife from the ground. Tyson walked in carrying, I kid you not, a box of donuts.

"Powdered donuts!" he cried gleefully.

Okay, did a random donut place just appear in the middle of nowhere? Well, considering the fact that we're demigods, and weird stuff happens all the time, (including the time I found a clown head in my special drawer, which has a lock on it. The head wasn't real, of course, but it still scared the crap out of me.) Anyways, a lot of weird things happen.

"Where did you get that? We're in the middle of the wilderness. There's nothing around for-" I said.

"Fifty feet. Monster Donut shop. Just over the hill!" he finished.

Oh, crap. Why here, why now? "This is bad," I muttered as I stared at the donut shop from behind a very uncomfortable shrub. The shop had suddenly appeared, with bright windows, and a cashier behind the desk. The words **MONSTER DONUT **stood in black and white, with a Shrek imposter taking a huge bite out of it.

"This shouldn't be here," I whispered. "It's wrong."

"What?" said Percy incredulously. I guessed the thought of donuts in the middle of nowhere was a blessing to him. "It's a donut shop!"

"Shhh!" I hissed at him.

"Why are we whispering? Tyson went in and bought a dozen. Nothing happened to him," Percy said.

"He's a monster," I explained.

"Aw, c'mon, Annabeth. Monster Donut doesn't mean monsters! It's a chain. We've got them in New York," Percy said, exasperated with me.

"A chain. And don't you think it's strange that one appeared immediately after you told Tyson to get donuts? Right here, in the middle of the woods," I answered.

Percy looked at me weirdly. I guess the thought of evil donut shops did sound pretty ridiculous.

"It could be a nest," I explained.

Tyson whimpered beside me. I must have sounded pretty scared or something.

"A nest for what?" asked Percy.

"Haven't you ever wondered how franchise stores pop up so fast? One day there's nothing and then the next day, boom, there's a new burger place or a coffee shop or whatever? First a single store, then two, then four. Exact replicas spreading across the country?" I asked.

"Um, no. Never thought about it."

Idiot Seaweed Brain.

"Percy, some of the chains multiply so fast because all their locations are magically linked to the life force of a monster. Some children of Hermes figured out how to do it back in the 1950's. They breed-"

I stiffened. There was a Hydra in front of me. Of all the freaking luck.

"What?" asked Percy loudly. "They breed what?" He seemed very interested in this. Oh, boys. But now was not the time.

"No. Sudden. Moves," I hissed. "Very slowly, turn around."

Percy and Tyson turned slowly to look at the hippo-sized snake with seven heads. Under each neck had a t-shirt that said "I'm a Monster Donut kid!"

Percy slowly lifted his ballpoint pen, and I tried sending mental signals to him. Not yet.

The Hydra was only a few feet away now, and most of the heads sniffed around while two of the heads had a friendly game of tug-of-war with one of our duffel bags.

Tyson took frightened step back, snapping a twig. All the heads looked straight at us. Well, cover blown. Plan B in action.

"Scatter!" I yelled, and dove to the right.

I looked up as Percy tackled Tyson out of the way just as one of the heads snapped at them, hitting a tree, which toppled over onto two of the heads.

The Hydra hissed, slithering back.

"Move!" Percy yelled to Tyson, and took out Anaklusmos. That caught the Hydra's attention. One head snapped at him, and he instinctively swung his sword, cutting the head clean off.

"No!" I cried.

The Hydra's neck stump thing, whatever its called, grew two more heads. Great, another Monster Donut shop.

"Percy!" I reprimanded. "You just opened another Monster Donut shop somewhere!"

Percy rolled out of the way of a spray of acid and looked at me half-annoyed, half-mad. "I'm about to die and you're worried about that? How do we kill it?"

"Fire!" I answered. "We have to have fire!"

Percy glanced around. No fire. He backed up towards the river, and I stepped in with my trusty knife, blocking one of the Hydra heads from biting my hand off. I stumbled, falling to the ground, and the Hydra head lunged.

"No hitting my friends!" yelled Tyson and he jumped in front of me, hitting the Hydra over their heads with massive flying fists. I got up, hoping Tyson could finish it off, but even a Cyclops couldn't defeat the Hydra.

We walked backwards, forced toward the water. It wasn't long before it found a way through our defenses, and then we would be hellhound chow.

Then I heard the strangest thing. It was a chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga sound. What the Hades? Was Thomas the Tank Engine coming to rescue our butts? I think I can, I think I can!

"What's that noise?" I called.

"Steam engine," answered Tyson.

"What?" Percy said as he ducked, scarcely missing some acid.

"There! Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!" I never thought I would be happier to hear that voice again.

"They're too close, m'lady!" said a male voice, one I didn't recognize.

"Damn the heroes!" yelled Clarisse. "Full steam ahead!"

"Aye, m'lady."

"Fire at will, captain!" shouted Clarisse.

Great, she was going to hit us!

"Hit the dirt!" I yelled, and we dropped to the ground just as a giant boom filled the swampy place. The Hydra exploded, like it had swallowed a bomb, and I got covered with monster guts.

"Gross!" I yelled, jumping up.

"Steamship!" called Tyson, and we looked around to see an old-fashioned ship chugging toward us, a flag with a boar's head snapping in the wind.

There was Clarisse, in full battle armor, standing proudly at the bow of the ship. "Losers," she smirked at us. "But I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard."

Interesting day today. Luke's betrayal, a wild escape, major spilling of my feelings, monster donuts, a Hydra, and Clarisse. Just another average demigod day.

**Sorry, guys I couldn't think of any flashbacks when Annabeth was sitting in the half-blood hideout. Literally spent a half and hour trying to think of one. Serious brain cramp. :D**

**I am updating the next chapter tomorrow, just because I like to keep you in suspense, haha!**

**Lastly, both Bianca chapters will be in tommorow because I am having some serious brain crampage, and a new book is taunting me ruthlessly. So, sorry about that!**

**Review!**


	11. Pirates of the Caribbean, Demigod Style

**Yep, second update for Annabeth's Side! Yay!**

**And I'm sorry I broke my promise of two updates for each story, and it's a day late! I hope you guys aren't mad! {:-) (Worried and apologetic face)**

**And, since you guys were all like "Oh, you had ambrosia! Oh my gods!" Here's the link to one almost exactly like it, but I used a bit more yogurt and banana's .com/Recipes/Vanilla-Yogurt-Ambrosia **

past decembers and Son of The Sea 100896 **Yes, as I wrote the chapter before, I was thinking, centaurs at a party right? Then I got into thinking about centaurs dancing. And then I thought, how on earth do centaurs do the worm? It would look pretty freaky if you ask me haha.**

**Pirates of the Caribbean, Demigod Style**

"You are in so much trouble," said Clarisse to us as we toured the ship. She sounded like a little kid about to tattle.

I rolled my eyes. It wasn't like she was going to turn back and drop us off at Camp Half-Blood. We weren't important enough to her.

Dead soldiers wandered around the ship, their creepy faces shimmering between flesh and skeleton.

They seemed to accept me, just because I was from Virginia, but Percy, well, he just doesn't have my luck. Being from New York, he was a Yankee, and they all secretly hated him, I could tell.

Unfortunately, Tyson was totally freaked out by the dead men, and made me hold his hand. Why me? Percy was a much better comforting person, while I would probably threaten to kill someone if they kept whining.

Clarisse took us to dinner, explaining that, from what she had heard, Tantalus had expelled us from camp, and Mr. D said, quote, "If any of you show your face at camp again, I'll turn you into squirrels and run you over with my SUV."

Now, I don't know about you guys, but that didn't sound particularly pleasant, and my to-do list didn't involve being squirrelified.

"Did they give you this ship?" asked Percy

"Course not. My father did," she replied.

"Ares?" asked Percy incredulously. No, Percy, the other god of war and suffering who is the father of Clarisse. Seaweed Brain.

"You think your daddy is the only one with sea power? The spirits on the losing side of every war owe a tribute to Ares. That's their curse for being defeated. I prayed to my father for a naval transport and here it is. These guys will do anything I tell them. Won't you, Captain?" asked Clarisse with mock sweetness in her voice.

The ghost soldier glared at Percy the Yankee. "If it means an end to this infernal war, ma'am, peace at last, we'll do anything. Destroy anyone."

"Destroy everyone, I like that," said Clarisse, smiling.

Tyson gulped, his unintelligent eyes widening.

"Clarisse," I said, trying to change the subject. "Luke might be after the Fleece, too. We saw him. He's got the coordinates and he's heading south. He has a cruise ship full of monsters-"

"Good, I'll blow him out of the water!" she said.

Gods, Clarisse was a good fighter and all, but this time she bit off more then she could chew!

"You don't understand," I said, trying to get it in her thick skull. "We have to combine forces. Let us help you-"

"No!" shouted Clarisse, smashing her hand on the table, like a judge going "Order! Order!" "This is _my _quest, smart girl! Finally I get to be the hero, and you two will not steal my chance!"

"Were are your cabin mates?" asked Percy suddenly. "You were allowed to take two friends, weren't you?"

"They didn't… I let them stay behind. To protect the camp."

"You mean even the people in your own cabin wouldn't help you?" asked Percy incredulously.

Wow, that was low, even for the Ares cabin.

"Shut up Prissy! I don't need them! Or you!" shouted Clarisse.

"Clarisse," said Percy, holding in his anger. "Tantalus is using you. He doesn't care about camp. He'd love to see it destroyed. He's setting you up to fail."

"No! I don't care what the Oracle-" She stopped, realizing her mistake.

"What? What did the Oracle tell you?" asked Percy, leaning forward intently.

"Nothing. All you need to know is that I'm finishing this quest and you're not helping. On the other hand I can't let you go…"

"So we're prisoners?" I asked, annoyed. Kidnapped by a crazy Ares kid. This was not the way I planned to go, death-wise.

"Guests. For now. Captain, take them below. Assign them hammocks on the berth deck. If they don't mind their manners, show them how we deal with enemy spies," said Clarisse threateningly.

Gods, this day sucked. I fell into a deep sleep thinking about Luke.

I was having this really good dream about the worlds greatest monument made out of chocolate when the sound of alarms woke me.

I jumped up, running up onto the deck, Tyson close behind. Percy of course, was so deep in his sleep, he didn't even hear it. I left it to the captain to wake him.

I looked to where we were heading, and had a pang of fear. It was the entrance to the Sea of Monsters. At least, that was what I thought. I couldn't really see anything besides

Percy came up next to me looking like a harpy who had woken up on a bad day. And they were ugly when looking their best.

"What's wrong?" I asked, worried. "Another dream?"

He nodded, ashen-faced, but didn't say anything. That wasn't good.

Clarisse came up right behind him, looking shaken, but ready. She lifted the binoculars to her eyes. "At last! Captain, full steam ahead!"

The engine got louder, and we sped up, heading toward the dots in the distance.

"Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water," said Tyson nervously. I didn't know much about engines, but I could tell that was not good.

After about five minutes, the dots in the distance became clearer. To one side, a huge cliff stood tall. To the other, a great storm was brewing, the sea churning.

"Hurricane?" I asked curiously.

"No. Charybdis," answered Clarisse.

I paled. Gods, she was going to kill us! "Are you crazy?"

"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla," said Clarisse, pointing to the cliff.

Yep, I was about as dead as Travis Stoll after stealing the chest of clothes from an Aphrodite girl. He's done it before, but don't ask me why he would want a chest of girls' clothes. I've heard of some guys trying on their wife's clothes after she's gone. Maybe he had a similar urge.

"What do you mean, the only way?" asked Percy. "The sea is wide open!"

Gods, I keep forgetting Percy is a newbie to the whole Greek mythology thing.

Clarisse thought the same thing. "Don't you know anything? If I tried to sail around them, they would just appear in my path again. If you want to get into the Sea of Monsters, you have to sail through them."

"What about the Clashing Rocks?" I asked. "That's another gateway. Jason used it."

"I can't blow apart rocks with my cannon. Monsters on the other hand…" said Clarisse, smiling in a particularly sly way.

"You are crazy," I decided.

"Watch and learn, Wise Girl!" said Clarisse smugly. "Set course to Charybdis!"

"Aye, milady!"

The boat complained, then picked up even more speed until my hair was waving behind me.

"Clarisse," said Percy, addressing her. "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"

"And spits it back out again, yeah," she answered.

"What about Scylla?"

"She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship."

"Choose Scylla then. Everyone goes below deck and we chug right past," offered Percy.

"No!" said Clarisse, her hair waving. "If Scylla doesn't get her easy meat, she might pick up the whole ship. Besides, she's too high to make a good target. My cannons can't shoot straight up. We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"

The way she said this, with such vigor and excitement, would've have sworn she was set on killing us all, just for the fun of it.

We got closer and closer to the impending doom, and the strength of Charybdis got worse and worse. Soon we were being pulled in, then pushed out by every mouthful water she was able to get into that giant mouth of hers.

I gripped the rail with as much force as I could muster. "You still have your thermos full of wind?" I asked.

Percy nodded, looking worriedly at the world biggest toilet bowl, otherwise known as Charybdis. "But it's too dangerous to use the a whirlpool like that. More wind might just make things worse."

"What about controlling the water?" I asked. "You're Poseidon's son. You've done it before."

I flashed back to our interesting ride at the water park, almost a full year ago.

Percy got the constipated look on his face, and I knew he was trying his hardest to get the waves to bow under his will.

"I-I can't," he said, half annoyed, half miserable.

"We need a backup plan," I said. "This isn't going to work."

"Annabeth is right," agreed Tyson. For once I was glad to have the Cyclops on my side. "Engine's no good."

"What do you mean?" I asked suspiciously.

"Pressure. Pistons need fixing."

Charybdis decided it was time to take another breath of seawater, and with a rawr, the ship was pulled forward into whirlpool.

"Full reverse!" screamed Clarisse. "Get us with firing range! Make ready starboard cannons!"

Even with the ships propellers going backwards, we were still getting sucked in. I caught a glimpse of Charybdis's mouth. Ugh, you do _not _want to know what I saw between those teeth. I mean, seriously, twenty-first century people, ever heard of a thing called a toothbrush?

"Boiler room overheating, ma'am! She's going to blow!" shouted a dead soldier.

"Well, get down there and fix it!"

Great support there, Clarisse.

"Can't!" yelled the sailor. "We're vaporizing in the heat!"

Clarisse slugged the casemate. "All I need is a few more minutes! Just enough to get into range!"

"We're going in too fast. Prepare yourself for death," said the captain.

You know, I always thought captains were depressed. You'd think he'd put a little more effort into trying to save ourselves. Then again, he was dead anyway, so what did he care?

"No!" shouted Tyson. "I can fix it!"

"You?" asked Clarisse in disbelief.

"He's a Cyclops," I told her. "He's immune to fire. And he knows mechanics."

"Go!" shouted Clarisse.

"Tyson, no!" said Percy, grabbing his arm. "It's too dangerous!"

"Only way, brother," said Tyson sadly, patting his hand. "I will fix it. Be right back."

Charybdis was in full view now, her black teeth covered with all sorts of things, most I'd rather not describe, at least without a barf bucket close by.

"Lady Clarisse," shouted the captain. "Starboard and forward guns are in range!"

"Fire!" shouted Clarisse, and I was instantly reminded of Pirates of the Caribbean, except this time, there was no witty Captain Jack Sparrow or Will Turner to save our butts.

I realized, beneath her disgusting sludge, there were braces. I pitied whoever was her orthodontist. "Now, open wide, Charybdis." "RAAWR!" (Water and other unnamable objects fly out.)

Suddenly, the ship seemed to get a mind of it's own, backing away from the horrible mouth.

"Tyson did it!" I yelled.

"Wait," shouted Clarisse. "We need to stay close!"

"We'll die!" Percy replied. "We have to move away!"

The mouth snapped shut, and for about five seconds, the sea was calm. Then, BOOM! She let out all the water she had sucked in.

I meanwhile, had been panting, when a wave of Charybdis's breath caught me off guard. By the gods, it was horrible! Imagine a rotting body, rolled in fresh cow manure, smothered with sea goop, and left out to rot in the sun for good measure. Now times that by ten. I thought I was about to die.

Then the waves hit us, and we were about forty feet high in the air. "The engines about to blow!" yelled a sailor, racing up onto the deck.

"Where's Tyson?" yelled Percy, looking around frantically.

"Still down there," answered the dead sailor. "Holding it together somehow, though I don't know for how much longer."

"We have to abandon ship!" announced the captain.

"No!" Clarisse commanded.

"We have no choice m'lady. The hull is already cracking apart! She can't-"

Something brown and green shot down and grabbed the captain, faster then anything I've ever seen before. Great. Scylla's come and joined the party.

"Scylla!" shouted a sailor, but he too was quickly snatched up by those jaws.

Percy uncapped Riptide, but even he was too slow to stop Scylla from getting another victim.

"Everyone get below!" he shouted.

"We can't! Below deck is in flames!" Clarisse shouted back.

"Lifeboats!" I said, spotting them. "Quick!"

"They'll never get clear of the cliffs. We'll all be eaten," Clarisse answered.

"We have to try," I argued. "Percy, the thermos."

"I can't leave Tyson!"

Gods, sometimes I hated his loyalty.

"We have to get the boats ready!" I snapped back.

Clarisse ran to one boat, frantically untying it.

"Get the other boat," said Percy, throwing me the thermos. "I'll get Tyson."

"You can't!" I screamed at him. "The heat will kill you!"

Percy didn't listen, the idiot, and ran towards the door to below deck. I turned and somehow managed to get the cursed ropes cut, thanks to my trusty knife and pushed it to the side of the boat. Turning back, I saw Scylla lift up Percy with one of her gaping jaws.

"Percy!" I screamed, desperately looking up as the mouth lifted him higher and higher.

There was no time to wait for Tyson. I pushed the boat into the water, using the thermos to get myself away from the ship.

Just in time too. The ship exploded, and I was buffeted with heat. There was no way Tyson, even being a Cyclops, could survive.

"Tyson!" shouted a voice from above me. Then something splashed into the water next to my boat.

I looked cautiously overboard, dreading seeing Percy's body smashed and him dead. There was no way he could survive a fall from that high.

I saw his body sinking into the waves. Choking back my sorrow, I dived in, refusing to let Percy go to Davy Jones's Locker. It just wasn't right.

My arms closed around his limp form, and I brought him to the surface, pushing his body into the boat. I climbed in afterwards, holding back tears. Was this really the way Percy was going to end?

Then I saw his chest rise, and I froze. Could it be? I placed my hands over his heart. Yep, there it was still beating.

My tears overflowed, but this time with happiness. I looked for Tyson after that, I really did, but there was nothing, not even a scrap of his clothes. It was going to kill Percy, even if his dramatic fall didn't.

I turned the thermos, making sure I got far away from the mouth of the Sea of Monsters.

Turning back to Percy's unconscious body, I smiled, in what seemed like years. Looks like we were on another adventure together. I smoothed back his soaked hair, then grunted to myself in disgust.

Sometimes, I was such a softie.

**O M G, was that a Percabeth moment I spotted? Hrmm? Oh, yes, I feel accomplished.**

**I have a major headache right now, and some dreaded homework to finish, so unfortunately, no Bianca update. Sorry! Maybe tomorrow!**

**Review!**


	12. Creepy Stalker Gerbil

**Sup, Fanfictioners!**

**Hows it hangin? Today I watched How to Train Your Dragon! Haha Ikr, fourteen year old girl watching a kiddie movie and LOVING IT! Haha we will always be a kid inside :) Or at least, I want to be. :P**

**I had to do a narrative this week to go to my state's district writing scorer peoples, and guess what I did it on? Yeah, you got that right, FF! One lucky person got their review on it, but I left them anonymous on my paper. **

**One update today, two tomorrow, another for Annabeth and Bianca, just because I know I'm slacking :P Also because, my fav chapter for Annabeth is after this one! Can you guess what it is? Hmm? Involves a Percabeth scene! **

**You guys remember how my mom poked me with a fork, correct? Well I think she's going cannibalistic. First she pokes me with a fork (tenderizer ahaha) then she bites my finger, now she's trying to bite my shoulder as I type this and she thinks I'm not looking. (I see you, mom!) Lol someone save me! **

**BTW, anyone read the Daughters of the Moon series? I'm currently obsessed with it right now :D Probably not enough to do a Fanfic on it, but oh well, its still good. Do you know if there will be a 7th book per chance?**

Son of The Sea God100896 **Haha, oopsy daisy! It's not that often I write about Cyclopes, you know! Heheh**

Thalia Grace Pikachu **Haha, certainly not! Though it would be fun to be a flying squirrel… Wheee! Hahah!**

**Read, Review, and Favorite! **

**Creepy Stalker Gerbil**

I had been fixing our make shift sail, aka, my raincoat, when I saw Percy fidget beside me. He got that look on his face that everyone who's a demigod gets nearly everyday. It's the "Holy crap, where the Hades am I?" look.

He tried to sit up but flinched, probably from the whole, I-just-fell-fifty-feet-and-passed-out feeling of pain.

"Rest." I pushed his shoulder down. "You're going to need it."

"Tyson…?" he asked, glancing around. What, no "I'm glad you saved me?"

I shook my head, because hey, he almost died. I'm not going to rain on his parade of sorrow. "Percy, I'm really sorry."

Then came the awkward silence slash mourning. The waves swished past us, rocking the boat as we sailed through the ocean.

"He may have survived," I said hesitantly. "I mean, fire can't kill him."

Percy nodded, but I could see the blank look of anguish in his eyes that said he didn't believe it.

I showed him what I had been able to salvage from the ship's destruction, including the empty thermos, sandwich bag full of ambrosia, a few shirts and a Dr. Pepper. (This, by the way, was really hard to resist when Percy was unconscious.)

We sailed for hours in silence, Percy too exhausted to do anything, me just trying to think about where the heck we were going. All my life I didn't get how to sail. I mean, what if the wind was blowing in one direction, but you wanna go in the other? How does that work?

We took turns sipping the Dr. Pepper, and I silently prayed he wasn't a backwasher. Gods, I hate those people. Ugh, it makes me shiver.

We tried to shade ourselves with the makeshift sail, but there's only so much you can do with a raincoat. We also talked about Percy's last dream about Grover, with him trying to unravel the veil on his wedding dress. Heh, Grover in a wedding dress. That gave me disturbing yet very funny image in my head. Then I started to think about him walking down the aisle hand and hand with Polyphemus. Talk about a happy couple.

I was pretty sure we had less then twenty-four hours to save Grover according to what Percy's dream suggested, that is, if Polyphemus didn't change his mind and eat him.

"Yeah," replied Percy bitterly. "You can never trust a Cyclops."

I stared across the water. Gods, I hated saying I was wrong. Trait of an Athena kid, I guess. But also, Percy and Tyson deserved it. "I'm sorry, Percy. I was wrong about Tyson, okay? I wish I could tell him that."

I could tell Percy was still in a bad mood, but it wasn't me. A sorry from me is like a letter of sincere apology to the president for crashing his party.

Percy played with our meager belongings, something obviously on his mind.

"Annabeth, what's Chiron's prophecy?"

Gods, I knew someday it would come to this. I pursed my lips. "Percy, I shouldn't-"

"I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn't tell me. But you didn't promise them, did you?"

Gods curse his devious mind. "Knowledge isn't always good for you," I said, trying to get him off the subject.

"Your mom is the wisdom goddess!"

Dang it, he had me there.

"I know! But every time heroes here the future, they try to change it and it never works!" I said, adding silently that they usually died trying to change it.

"The gods are worried about something I'll do when I get older," he mused. "Something when I turn sixteen."

I twisted my invisibility cap in my hands, half expecting Zeus to zap me into Annabeth ashes for saying these next lines. "Percy, I don't know the full prophecy, but it warns about a half-blood child of the Big Three. The next one who lives to the age of sixteen. That's the real reason Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades swore a pact after Word War II not to have anymore kids. The next child of the Big Three will be a dangerous weapon."

Personally, I didn't think Percy could do much harm, besides accidently toppling Olympus with his clumsiness. That would have some not so pleasant outcomes.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because that hero will decide that fate of Olympus. He or she will make a decision that either saves the Age of the Gods or destroys it."

Percy thought about this for a second, then went kind of green, like he was seasick. Did the kids of Poseidon get seasick? That would be weird.

"That's why Kronos didn't kill me didn't kill me last summer," he choked out.

I nodded. I had suspected that ever since I knew that Kronos was trying to come back. "You could be very useful to him. If he can get you on his side, the gods will be in serious trouble."

"But if it's me in the prophecy-"

"We'll only know that if you survive three more years." I tried to hide it, the thought of Percy being gone, the Seaweed Brain who made my life comical, even in the most dire situations was not something I liked to think about. Life would be kinda empty without him. "That can be a long time for a half-blood. When Chiron first learned about Thalia, he thought she was the one in the prophecy. That's why he was so desperate to get her to camp safely. Then she went down fighting and got turned into a pine tree and none of us knew what to think. Until you came along."

A giant fin came out of the water, about fifteen feet long. Comforting.

"This kid in the prophecy… he or she couldn't be like, a Cyclops? The Big Three have lots of monster children," said Percy.

I shook my head. "The Oracle said 'half-blood.' That always means half-human, half-god. There's really nobody alive but you."

"Then why do the gods even let me live? It would be safer to kill me."

"You're right," I answered.

"Thanks a lot."

It would be safer, maybe, but not right. "Percy, I don't know. I guess some of the gods would like to kill you, but they're probably afraid of offending Poseidon. Other gods… maybe they're still watching you, trying to decide what kind of hero you're going to be. You could be a weapon for their survival, after all. The real question is… what will you do in three years? What decisions will you make?" I questioned.

"Did the prophecy give any hints?" he asked.

I hesitated, torn between telling the prophecy and keeping everything quiet. A seagull cawed and landed on the mast, dropping a pile of leaves on my lap. It was like a sign from the gods. Land!

"Land," I said, awed. "There's land nearby!"

He sat up from his previously relaxed position with his hands behind his head. We were going toward a paradise. Lavish white buildings surrounded a small mountain, beaches with umbrellas propped up and a harbor with an assortment of boats. The current of the sea was sailing us right towards it.

"Welcome!" said a lady with a clipboard, reaching to shake our hands as we got out of our makeshift boat.

She was like one of those creepy botoxed office managers, with the perfect ponytail and manicured nails, all who have a smile on their faces but secretly hate your guts.

"Is this your first time at the spa?" asked the lady as if we had an appointment and had been planning to come here.

"Um…" I answered as I cast a sidelong glance at Percy.

"First-time-at-spa," the lady said as she wrote on her clipboard. "Let's see…"

She looked at as critically. "Hmm. An herbal wrap to start with the young lady. And, of course, a complete makeover for the young gentleman."

I resisted the urge to laugh. I could imagine Percy getting a mud facial, his nails done, a massage… oh, the possibilities.

"A what?" asked Percy incredulously.

The lady ignored her, scribbling notes on her clipboard. Probably ways to give Percy a makeover. Heh, if we ever survived this, I was going to make fun of him for the rest of his life.

"Right!" said the lady, smiling. "Well, I'm sure C.C. will want to speak with you personally before the luau. Come please."

I brightened. Luau? No one knew, this but I was amazing at the hula.

Now that I looked back on it, a random spa in the middle of the Sea of Monsters, emphasis on monsters, was bound to lead to disastrous results. You can't blame me though, I must have had heat stroke or something, perhaps insane boredom of hours on the little rescue boat.

"I guess is couldn't hurt," I mumbled, already thinking of an herbal facial. You have no idea how relaxing it could be. Silena Beauregard once "kidnapped" me, literally tying me down on a cot to give me one.

The spa was amazing, as in oh-my-gods amazing. Pools on every level, with waterslides and underwater tubes, fountains spraying seemingly impossible shapes, like galloping horses.

I turned to look at Percy expecting excitement or amazement on his face, but instead, he looked like he was about to be sick.

"You okay?" I asked. "You look pale."

"I'm okay. Just… let's keep walking."

We passed a bunch of animals, like a sea turtle on a rock, and a leopard hanging over a diving board. That probably should have been another signal that this place was weird, but I was in some delusional state.

Young women lounged in deck chairs, waited on hand and foot by ladies in white. The sound of singing, an old language, maybe Minoan, sounding like a girl was singing it. She was singing about nature, moonlight, and sunsets, and something about magic. I wasn't sure, because my language translation was pretty rusty. We didn't study Minoan language much at Camp Half-Blood.

What I did know, though, was that it was very compelling. It seemed to almost call to me, invite me in.

It led us to a big room, with mirrors on the walls, creating the affect that made it seem like things when on forever. The room was decorated with fancy white furniture, and a rodent cage stood on a table. There was a woman sitting by a loom the size of a fridge, singing while she weaved intricate designs, giving the tapestry a seemingly impossible 3-D look to it. It showed a waterfall, looking so real, it was like I could actually see the water cascading down.

"It's beautiful," I whispered, awed.

The lady turned, and I would have sworn Percy gasped. Talk about creepy. Thirteen-year-old boy looking at a twenty, twenty-five year old woman with awe.

Her long dark hair had gold threads weaved into it, braided down her back. Her green eyes were in fierce contrast with her black dress, giving the lady a black panther look to her.

"You appreciate weaving, my dear?" she asked silkily.

"Oh, yes, ma'am! My mother is-" I stopped myself before I went on talking about my mother was Athena, who had invented the loom. They'd probably put me in a straight jacket and lead me carefully to the crazy house.

"You have good taste, my dear," said the woman. "I'm so glad you've come. My name is C.C."

The animals in the cage started squealing. It was like they had made a fan club for C.C., from the noise they were making.

We introduced ourselves, and C.C. looked us over apprehensively. For some reason I didn't want to disappointed her. She seemed to like me a little bit, at least, but Percy, nuh-uh.

"Oh, dear," she told him. "You do need help."

"Ma'am?" asked Percy, confused.

C.C. called the clipboard lady back in. "Hylla, take Annabeth on a tour, will you? Show her what we have available. The clothing will need to change. And the hair, my goodness. We will do a full image consultation after I've spoken with this young gentleman."

"But…" I said, hurt. "What's wrong with my hair?" It was in it's usually ponytail, a little messed up from the hours on the boat, but still presentable.

C.C. smiled. "My dear, you are lovely. Really! But you're not showing off yourself or your talents at all. So much wasted potential!"

"Wasted?" Gods, mock me, why don't you?

"Well, surely you're not happy the way you are! My goodness, there's not a single person who is. But don't worry. We can improve anyone here at the spa. Hylla will show you what I mean. You, my dear, need to unlock your true self!"

The way her words compelled me was amazing. I realized there was a lot I wanted to change about myself. My eyes were too light. My chin was too big. Gods, why hadn't I seen it before? 

"But… what about Percy?" I asked, remembering we were her together.

"Oh, definitely. Percy requires my personal attention. He needs much more work then you."

That made me happy. I wasn't perfect, but I was certainly better then Percy.

The animals, either gerbils or guinea pigs, began to squeal again from their cage, as if they were agreeing.

"Well… I suppose…" I murmured.

"Right this way, dear," said Hylla, and led me toward the garden full of fountains.

"Here at the spa, we treat our guests as if they are royalty. We have a variety of treatments, from mud baths to massages, waters with certain herbs in it, mixed with magic-"

"Magic?" I asked, confused.

"Just a way of describing it, dear," said Hylla.

I nodded, understanding.

"Would you like to see our library?" she said, changing the subject.

I brightened. "Oh, yes ma'am!"

"Right this way, my dear," Hylla said, smiling.

She led me to the library the size of Camp Half-Blood, filled with books on every subject. I instantly grabbed the biggest book I could find on architecture.

Oh, the designs! The trusses! This book could be the guide for my life!

"Oh, um, dear, it's time for your herbal wrap," said Hylla, interrupting my reading.

"Huh? Oh, yes, of course, I said, getting up and placing the lovely book back on its shelf.

She led me to a booth with a lady in it.

"Good afternoon! I am Raina, and I'll show you your true self today!" said the perky lady, Raina.

"Um, hi," I replied, sitting on the spinning hairdresser-like chair. She leaned it back, placing herbal gunk on my face, letting it relax my muscles with its natural healing power.

"Ahh…" I sighed, putting my hands behind my head.

Before I could really enjoy it though, Raina removed it.

"Our herbal wraps work much faster then normal ones," she explained.

"Of course," I said as if that wasn't weird.

"You have a great complexion, dear," Raina said. "Almost no blemishes."

"Thank you!" I said happily.

She put a foundation matching my skin exactly, with just a hint of pink on my cheeks. Eyeliner was applied, making my gray eyes pop out.

"Any hairstyle that you'd like, my dear?" she asked.

"Can, can you do it like C.C.'s?" I asked.

"It would be my pleasure. Many of our residents prefer that also."

She braided my hair, interweaving it with a strip of gold, making it look like my blond hair was sparkling in the sunlight, reflecting off the shiny metal.

Then she gave me a sleeveless white dress, and when I put it on, it fit like it was made for me.

"And your true self is revealed!" said Raina, showing me a full-length mirror.

I gasped, looking at myself in wonder. Why had I always refused to wear makeup?

"I'm… I'm beautiful."

"Or course you are, dear. You just had to realize it."

"Thank you so much! But I really have to go see Percy."

"Oh, um, dear, I don't think you should do that," said Raina, but I walked out of the booth, already strutting past the library.

I stopped at the door that led to where I had previously left Percy and C.C.

"Miss C.C.?" I called, then walked in.

"Where's Percy?" I asked looking around. All I saw was C.C. and a creepy gerbil or guinea pig, giving me moony eyes. Two words. Stalker rodent. It began to squeak as I stared at it. Creepy.

C.C. smiled. "He's having one of our treatments, my dear. Not to worry. You look wonderful! What did you think of your tour?"

"Your library is amazing!" I said.

"Yes, indeed," she replied. "The best knowledge of the past three millennia. Anything you want to study, anything you want to be, my dear."

"An architect?" I asked hopefully.

"Pah," scoffed C.C. "You, my dear, have the makings of a sorceress. Like me."

I took a step back, warning bells going off in my head. "A sorceress?"

"Yes, my dear," she replied, lifting her hand to show a small flame. "My mother is Hecate, the goddess of magic. I know a daughter of Athena when I see one. We are not so different, you and I. We both seek knowledge. We both admire greatness. Neither of us needs to stand in the shadow of men."

I did hate sexist people. "I-I don't understand."

The stalker gerbil thing squealed like crazy again. I ignored it.

"Stay with me," crooned C.C. "Study with me. You can join our staff, become a sorceress, learn to bend others to your will. You will become immortal!"

"But-"

"You are too intelligent, my dear. You know better then to trust that silly camp for heroes. How many great female half-bloods can you name?"

"Um, Atalanta, Amelia Earhart-" I ticked off my fingers.

"Bah!" interrupted C.C. "Men get all the glory. The only way to power for a woman is sorcery. Medea, Calypso, now they were powerful women! And me, of course. The greatest of them all."

The thought donned on me, and I snapped out of the stupid trance cast upon me. "You… C.C…. Circe!"

"Yes, my dear!"

I backed up, certain she was going to hit me with a magic ball of fire.

"You need not worry. I mean you no harm," said Circe.

"What have you done to Percy?"

"Only helped him realize his true form."

I glanced around the room, my eyes catching on the rodent cage, seeing the stalker gerbil reaching through the bars anxiously. Oh my gods, Percy was the stalker gerbil!

"Forget him!" said Circe, trying to recapture my mind. "Join me and learn the ways of sorcery!"

"But-"

"Your friend will be cared for." Gods, she really needed to learn not to interrupt people. "He'll shipped off to a wonderful new home on the mainland. The kindergartners will adore him. Meanwhile, you will be wise and powerful. You will have all you ever wanted.

I stared at Percy slash stalker gerbil, trying to fight Circe's control.

"Let me think about it," I managed. "Just… give me a minute alone. To say goodbye."

"Of course, my dear. One minute. Oh… and so you have absolute privacy…" With a wave of her hands, iron bars covered the windows. Drat. She walked out of the room, and I heard the click of the door locking behind her.

I rushed over to the cage. "All right, which one is you?" More gerbils, or rather, guinea pigs, I realized as I got closer had come out, and I didn't see the stalker gerbil one.

They all squealed. Helpful. I scanned the room and saw the cuff of Percy's jeans sticking out from under the loom. The vitamins! I ran over, frantically searching the pockets and taking out the bottle. I unscrewed it and just popped a lemon on in my mouth as the door blew open, Circe strutting in with of her attendants.

"Well, how fast a minute passes. "What is your answer, my dear?" asked Circe.

"This," I said, unsheathing my bronze knife.

Circle stepped back but her surprise quickly passed. "Really, little girl, a knife against my magic? Is that wise?"

I prayed to the gods that the vitamins would work.

"What will Annabeth's makeover be?" mused Circe. "Something small and ill-tempered. I know, a shrew!"

Blue fire flew toward me, but as it faded, I was unchanged.

I leaped toward the sorceress, pressing my knife against her throat.

"How about turning me into a panther instead! One that has her claws at your throat!" I yelled.

"How?" screamed Circe.

I lifted the bottle of vitamins.

"Curse Hermes and his multivitamins! Those are such a fad! Those do nothing to you!"

"Turn Percy back into a human or else!" I said to her.

"I can't!" she said.

"Then you asked for it!"

The two attendants stepped forward. "Get back! She's immune to magic until the cursed vitamin wears off!" shouted Circe.

I dragged Circe to the cage of guinea pigs, took the top off, and poured the vitamins in, praying to the gods that Percy and the other guys in the cage wouldn't pop up completely naked. That would be awkward.

"No!" shouted Circe.

The guinea pigs attacked the vitamins, and suddenly, boom! The cage exploded, a bunch of men, thankfully clothed, and Percy, all looking disoriented.

"No! You don't understand! Those are the worst!" said Circe.

"Arrg!" bellowed a man, who looked familiar. "What's the witch done t'me?"

"No!" Circe said again.

I gasped. "I recognize you! Edward Teach, son of Ares?"

"Aye, lass," grumbled the man. ""Though most call me Blackbeard! And there's the sorceress that captured us, lads! Run her through, and then I mean to find me a big bowl of celery! Arggggh!"

Circe screamed like a little girl, and ran out of the room with her attendants, the pirates close behind.

I turned to Percy, half-mad at him for being turned into a guinea pig, and half-relieved he was okay.

"Thanks… I'm really sorry-"

Idiot Seaweed Brain. I ran over and hugged him. Gods, was he working out? I could feel his muscles. Wait, not the time. I let go. "I'm glad you're not a guinea pig."

"Me, too," he said, red-faced.

I didn't know why he was embarrassed, so I guessed it was because Raina had glamified me, and took out the braid in my hair.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain. We have to get away while Circe's distracted."

We ran out, passed the library, the booth where I got my facial, and I quickly grabbed my normal clothes. Pirates were ransacking the place, destroying it, pretty much everything normal pirates do. Good. This place needed to be destroyed.

"Which ship?" I asked as we reached the dock.

"That one," said Percy, pointing to the old one with the sails. It said _Queen Anne's Revenge. _How on earth could we sail that thing?

"But-"

"I can make it work," interrupted Percy."

"How?"

He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the ship in an answer, and we climbed aboard.

"Arggh!" bellowed Blackbeard. "Those scalawags are a-boarding me vessel! Get 'em, lads!"

"We'll never get going in time!" I yelled at Percy.

Percy looked around quickly and closed his eyes in concentration. "Mizzenmast!" he said finally, and I looked at him strangely.

Suddenly, the whole ship came alive, ropes snapping, and sails unraveling. I ducked as a rope flew over my head to tie onto another rope.

"Percy, how…?" I asked.

Percy shrugged, then somehow made the boat sail away from the island full of angry pirates waving giant sticks of celery.

Talk about a weird day.

**Watcha guys think? Another mini Percabeth scene leading up to the big one! What is Annabeth going to think, I wonder? To be figured out tomorrow!**

**Review!**


	13. Hubris or Hummus?

**OMGOMGOMGOMG Fanfictioners! 100 reviews! Thank you sooo much! I love you all! Even if you are total strangers! High freaking five! **

**I had a weird dream last night, that a fanfiction stalker got into my house, but I tied him to a roller coaster and left. Is that weird? **

**First of all, thank you for the wonderful reviews! I update at freaking 1 in the morning, and when I check my email again, there are 7 new reviews! I love you guys! Not in a weird way of course, but I feel hyper knowing you like my stories so much!**

cotex14 **Thank you for that wonderful review! It seriously means a lot that you think like that of me. Unfortunately, I wish I thought the same. There are college people who write fanfics on here, and I bet they are better then me. After all, I'm not even in high school yet! I wish Dobby hadn't died either, because he is like the best character in the book! And no, sadly, I do not watch American Idol, just because I am physically and mentally unable to remember what day and what time certain shows are on. That's why I watch Glee online :P**

summergirl881 **Yeah, that's what I thought too, but when I looked at what Annabeth said in the SoM, she said she didn't know the whole thing, so I just kinda went with it, you know? Must have been a typo or something.**

Son of The Sea 100896 **Sorry about the typo! Hehe. Very true about following her around :P and yes my mom did do that stuff, but I don't really think she's going cannibal. She's vegetarian! Haha, I just come from a weird family. :D**

past decembers **Yes! And don't you love Annabeth's little random thoughts? I personally started rolling on the floor laughing when I thought of a stalker gerbil :D**

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**Hubris or Hummus?**

It seemed Percy had finally found something he was good at, besides messing other things up. It was like the ship was an extension of his arm, obeying his every command like a lovesick puppy.

We sailed through the night, and I tried to be a lookout, then began to turn green. Ocean waves on a giant ship did not agree with me. I went to lay down in one of the hammocks below deck, trying to ignore the tossing and turning in my stomach.

I must have fallen asleep for a bit, because when I came back on deck, it seemed to be about midnight. I could only see Percy by the moonlight shining on his face as he stared in a happy bliss out to sea. I imagined him as a weathered pirate, peg leg and all. It was pretty funny.

I noticed a volcano spewing lava coming up. "One of the forges of Hephaestus," I said. "Where he makes his metal monsters."

"Like the bronze bulls?" asked Percy.

I nodded. "Go around. Far around," I advised.

Percy needed no more encouragement, and with a flick of his wrist, we were taking a wide arc around the dangerous island.

Percy looked at me, interest on his face. "The reason you hate Cyclopes so much… the story about how Thalia died. What happened?"

I hoped the darkness hid my expression. It certainly wasn't a pleasant one. But he did deserve the truth, about why I found it so hard to trust Tyson.

"I guess you deserve to know," I answered finally. "The night Grover was escorting us to camp, he got confused, took some wrong turns. You remember he told you that once?"

Percy nodded, but I could barely see it in the dim moonlight.

"Well, the worst wrong turn was into a Cyclops's lair in Brooklyn."

"They've got Cyclopes in Brooklyn?"

"You wouldn't believe how many," I said, grimacing. "But that's not the point. This Cyclops, he tricked us. He managed to split us up in this maze of corridors in an old house in Flatbush. And he could sound like anyone, Percy. Just like Tyson did aboard the Princess Andromeda. He lured us, one at a time. Thalia thought she was running to save Luke. Luke thought he heard me screaming for help. And me… I was alone in the dark. I was seven years old. I couldn't even find the exit."

I brushed the blond hair out of my face. "I remember finding the main room. There were bones all over the floor. And there were Thalia and Luke and Grover, tied up and gagged, hanging from the ceiling like smoked hams. The Cyclops was starting a fire in the middle of the floor. I drew my knife, but he heard me. He turned and smiled. He spoke, and somehow he knew my dad's voice. I guess he just plucked it out of my mind. He said, 'Now, Annabeth, don't you worry. I love you. You can stay here with me. You can stay forever.'"

Percy shivered. "What did you do?"

"I stabbed him in the foot."

"Are you kidding? You were seven years old and you stabbed a grown Cyclops in the foot?"

It was the one thing that came out good from that day. I felt proud that I had turned the stupid monster into dust. "Oh, he would have killed me. But I surprised him. It gave me just enough time to run to Thalia and cut the ropes on her hands. She took it from there."

"Yeah, but still… that was pretty brave, Annabeth."

I shook my head. I didn't want to remember that day as a success. It was a day of mourning for Thalia. "We barely got out alive. I still have nightmares, Percy. The way that Cyclops talked in my father's voice. It was his fault we took so long getting to camp. All the monsters who'd been chasing us had a chance to catch up. That's really why Thalia died. If it hadn't been for that Cyclops, she'd still be alive today." I shook with unheard sobs as I remembered the day, but quickly recovered my composure.

I lay down to watch the stars move across the sky, Percy close beside me. Any other night I would have wondered if this was romantic, in a way, but tonight, I was lost in my memories.

"Go below," I told him at last. "You need some rest."

He went without complaint, rubbing his eyes and yawning as he went to the hammocks.

Hours passed, and I paced along the deck, waiting for the island I knew would be coming up. The Sirens. There was a dot in the distance, and I knew. We were approaching the land of the Sirens.

I went below deck to find Percy tossing and turning in his hammock, letting out little cries. Another nightmare. Great. What other torturous thing was happening? I shook him, trying to wake him from his slumber.

"Ah!" screamed Percy, bolting upright in his hammock, only to have it flip him onto the ground. Oh, Seaweed Brain…

"Percy, you were having a nightmare. You need to get up."

"Wha-what is it?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

"Land," I replied. "We're approaching the island of the Sirens."

We walked up on deck, the little island getting closer and closer.

"I want you to do me a favor," I told him. "The Sirens… we'll be in their range of singing soon."

"No problem," he assured me before I could finish. "We can just stop up our ears. There's a big tub of candle wax below deck-"

"I want to hear them," I interrupted.

"Why?" said Percy, shocked.

"They say the Sirens sing the truth about what you desire. They tell you things about yourself that you didn't even realize. That's what's so enchanting. If you survive… you become wiser. I want to hear them. How often will I get that chance?"

I told him my plan, and even if he didn't like it, Percy agreed to help me. He ordered a rope to be tied around my waist so that I couldn't escape.

"Don't untie me, no matter how much I plead. I'll want to go straight over the edge and drown myself," I told him.

"Are you trying to tempt me?" asked Percy with a goofy grin.

"Ha, ha," I replied sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

He promised to keep me in place, then put two large wads of wax in his ears. I nodded to him just to say that the wax was a real fashion statement.

He made a face at me and turned to the steering wheel for the boat. I didn't hear anything at first, just the sound of the boat creaking in the water, and waves crashing against the rocks close beside us.

Then the sound of… something… it compelled me to listen closer. I cocked my ear in that direction, listening to the enchanting sound. It was… calling to me… begging me to come closer, to listen to the secrets it had.

I knew only one thing. I had to get out of those stupid ropes off so I could listen more closely.

I tried to wiggle out of the ropes, but to no avail.

"Help me, Percy!" I yelled at him, pleading.

He just stared at me with a disgusted face. I thought he was my friend!

"It's life or death! Please, Percy!" I begged. He just turned his head away.

What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he do just one simple thing for me? It was for the better! I could here my mom calling to me! Why didn't he understand?

Tears ran down my cheeks, because I was unable to get out of the ropes.

"Why, Percy?" I asked. "It's killing me!"

He turned to look at me.

"How could you be so cruel? I thought you were my friend!" I cried.

He turned his head away again.

"Ugh! Percy! How could you!" I screamed at him.

My fingers knocked against something. My knife! I managed to take out, sawing at the ropes until they split.

Yes, I was free! I leaped over the edge of the boat, diving into the water. Surfacing, I swam determinedly toward the singing. Was that Athena I heard calling me? Mom?

I looked up onto the beach to see my mother and father, hand in hand sitting on a blanket in the middle of Central Park. I saw the city, remade by me, with rooftop gardens and no litter. I saw Luke, unscarred, sitting on the blanket beside my parents, munching on a sandwich. He hadn't betrayed me!

Something grabbed my ankle, but I didn't stop to see what it was. I saw my parents and Luke, opening their arms to embrace me. Then, whoever grabbed my ankle began to pull me back.

"No!" I screamed, thrashing in the water for the thing to let go. I could see Luke and my parents becoming farther away, their faces saddened. A person stepped out of the trees. Percy! He could bring me back to the beach! Then we could have lunch and explore the world, _my _world.

I went underwater, and the music stopped. What?

My head broke the surface, and the sound began again, and I could see my family again. I kicked my kidnapper in the face, trying to get away. Why didn't it let go.

I was pulled under again, this time ten or twenty feet. If I went much lower, the pressure would be too much. Was my kidnapper trying to kill me? The song stopped, and I couldn't breathe for much longer. Suddenly, I was surrounded by something, and I took a deep breath of air.

Wait, air? I was still underwater! I opened my eyes to find that I was in a giant bubble, and there was Percy, that stupid wax still in his ears, looking at me with a very worried face.

And then I knew. Everything I had seen was just a trick of the Sirens, so they could eat me. None of that could ever really happen. My parents couldn't be together. Luke couldn't be saved. I could never build that wonderful city.

It was just too much. I started sobbing, horrible heaving sobs, and I threw myself at Percy, wrapping my arms around his neck placing my head on his shoulder. All my sorrows, my pain at the truth, came out. His arms wrapped around me in a cocoon of warmth, after at least ten minutes in the freezing water.

Percy was my rock, the one thing that didn't change in my life. He was the one that kept me from falling. Why hadn't I realized it before? And I had almost thrown it all away in a stupid attempt to reach my impossible fantasy. He had come to save me from my doom with the Sirens, no other concern for himself.

"I'll get us back to the ship," he whispered into my ear. "It's okay. Just hang on."

I nodded into the crook of his neck. "I… I… _Thank you…" _

I felt our little bubble move away from the island of the Sirens, and we surfaced, a rope ladder coming from the ship. I climbed up, Percy close behind, and we sailed away. I could still hear the singing, but felt no pull to go with towards it. I was too deep in my pool of sadness.

Finally, the sound disappeared, and I mouthed, "safe," to Percy. He took the wax earplugs out gratefully.

"You okay?" he asked me.

I didn't answer. Of course I wasn't. Everything I had ever wanted was shown to me, and I knew I could have none of it. "I didn't realize," I murmured to myself.

"What?" he asked.

"How powerful temptation could be," I answered, looking into those piercing green eyes.

Percy fidgeted, wavering about what he was going to say.

"I saw the way you rebuilt Manhattan," he said at last. "And Luke and your parents."

My cheeks turned warm. "You did?" I sincerely hoped he didn't see himself coming out of the forest."

"What Luke told back on the Princess Andromeda, about starting the world from scratch… that really got to you, huh?"

I pulled my blanket tighter around me. "My fatal flaw. That's what the Sirens showed me. My fatal flaw is hubris."

Percy got a confused look on his face. "That brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches."

I rolled my eyes, a bubble of hysteria slash exhaustion making me laugh. "No, Seaweed Brain. That's hummus. Hubris is worse."

"What can be worse then hummus?" he asked, trying to cheer me up.

You know, he kinda had a point there. "Hubris means deadly pride, Percy. Thinking you can do things better then everyone else… even the gods."

"You feel that way?" he asked curiously.

"Don't you ever feel like, what if the world really is messed up? What if we could do it all over again from scratch? No more war. Nobody homeless. No more summer reading homework."

"I'm listening."

"I mean, the West represents a lot of the best things mankind ever did. That's why the fire is still burning. That's why Olympus is still around. But sometimes you just see the bad stuff, you know? And you start thinking the way Luke does: 'If I could tear this all down, I would do it better.' Don't you ever feel that way? Like you could do a better job if you ran the world?"

"Umm… no. Me running the world would be kind of a nightmare."

Once again, he had a point. If Percy ruled the world, destruction was bound to happen.

"Then you're lucky. Hubris isn't your fatal flaw."

"What is?" he asked.

"I don't know, Percy, but every hero has one. If you don't find it and learn to control it… well they don't call it 'fatal' for nothing." _Way_ _to put a damper on things, Annabeth,_ I scolded myself.

"So was it worth it?" Percy asked finally. "Do you feel… wiser?"

I looked at the horizon. "I'm not sure. But we have to save camp. If we don't stop Luke…"

An island caught my eye. "Percy," I breathed, and nodded toward it.

We had reached the island of the Cyclops. I had a really bad feeling that this was where the hard things began.

**I hope I did the crying scene well enough! Please tell me what you think!**

**Bianca will be in in a few hours!**

**Review!**


	14. Those Sheep want to Eat Me

**Hey, my compadres, (See, got a new hello for ya.)**

**Sorry about not updating… Life, well, it gets annoying sometimes. Anyways, no updates this weekend. I had babysitting Friday, a test today, (IKR! TEST ON SATURDAY?) for a high school math placement, Ultimate Frisbee tournament (Who loves ultimate Frisbee?) and then I'm spending Sunday with my Mutha (mom) for Mother's Day. That means no Bianca, sorry. Should be up Monday or Tuesday night!**

**Watched the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows part 1 AGAIN. I'm a total Potter freak. I mean, who isn't? Hogwarts is three years late with my acceptance letter, but I'm still waiting patiently, by the way. Take it like this. My facebook page says I'm enrolled in Hogwarts! Totally awesome, right? Who needs a car when you've got magic? Anyways, I was okay when the killed Sirius. Mad when the killed Dumbledore. But how on earth could J.K. Rowling kill Dobby and Hedwig? It's too much! I was tearing up when Hedwig was killed, and positively BAWLING when Dobby died. :','( **

**My 8th grade graduation is coming too fast! Only, like, 25 more days! Then high school. Oh gods, someone save me now. **

**But anyways, thanks for all the reviews! I think I got like 30 on both chapters from Sunday. Ikr, OMG! And to **Son of The Sea 100896 **CONGATS! You are the 100th reviewer! (Confetti falls around you) Clap, clap!**

Arrayalight **High freaking five about How to Train Your Dragon. **

past decembers **Hehe, you like hummus? Well then bleh to you! haha, I'm just kiddin you! I'm neutral about it myself though, :)**

arissaprincess321 **I didn't have Annabeth say "I love you," in the crying scene because I didn't think Annabeth was sure about her feelings toward the end of the Titan's Curse.**

Cotex14 **Haha, thank you so much! I feel so loved 3 hehe :P Whoa, wait, I beat up ur sister? Just read the P.S… and very confused hehe.**

**I'm almost done with the book! Yays! Then that means 3 and 1/4 books to go! Geez, I need to think about what I'm going to do after I finish the Annabeth's Story series. Any suggestions?**

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**Those Sheep Want To Eat Me**

From the stories I've heard about Polyphemus's island, I was expecting to see thunderclouds surrounding it, jagged lightning coming down, and a barren wasteland, maybe a few of those rolling shrubs you see in the old western movies.

But no, this was your normal island, green grass, smooth water, and besides the whole giant chasm with a rickety looking bridge going across it, the place was pretty uninteresting. The only thing I was worried about was some kind of troll being under the bridge, then jumping up and saying something like, "You shall not pass," like in the Billy Goats Gruff story.

We stepped off the ship, and instantly, I could feel the power of the Fleece. Along with the giant blooming flowers and lush green meadows, the feeling of nature gave me some pretty clear signs. I breathed deeply, my nose catching the sweet tang on the breeze from ripe fruit. "The Fleece."

Percy nodded, feeling the immense power also. "If we take it away, will the island die?"

I shook my head. "It'll fade, go back to what it would normally be, whatever that was."

A bunch of sheep were in the field, milling around, doing whatever it is that sheep do. I saw the spark of gold, and my eyes locked onto a tree, its leaves in full color. The Golden Fleece lay on one the branches, flapping softly in the sea breeze.

"This is too easy," said Percy. "We could just hike up there and take it?"

I nodded. Something wasn't right. "There's supposed to be a guardian. A dragon, or…"

I stopped as I watched a deer walk into the field, probably to munch on some grass. Here is how I thought it went. The deer was like, "Hey, my four legged friends, is the grass greener over here?" Then the sheep were like, "Rawr! Food!" and then, well, imagine some disturbing images of a flock of sheep savagely eating a deer. Then give the sheep some really sharp teeth. Yeah, I shivered too.

I looked at Percy. Oh, gods, why couldn't my life be a frolic through a field of flowers? Preferably with the slow motion and happy music in the background? Oh, wait, that's right. I'm a demigod.

"They're like piranhas," I told him.

"Piranhas with wool. How will we-"

"Percy!" I gasped, my peripheral vision catching something. "Look!"

It was Clarisse's boat. She was here too. You know, I didn't really know if that was a good or a bad thing.

After arguing for about ten minutes, Percy and I agreed that we couldn't pass the carnivorous sheep. I wanted to go under my invisibility hat, but Percy wouldn't let me. He said something would go wrong. He was probably right.

We decided to park our ship over near the cliffs so that it would be harder to see. Unfortunately that meant that we had to climb the bloody cliffs ourselves.

I went first, since I was a better climber. Didn't make it much better though. We nearly died about ten times, but all in all, it was a good climb. Once, Percy's hand slipped, and for one terrifying moment, I thought he was going to fall to his death, fifty feet below. When he got his grip of the rocks again, I sighed in relief, only to slip on a piece of moss. My foot caught on something, and I sighed in relief, until I realized that the foothold was squishy and moaning. I had stepped on Percy's face. Talk about a bad day.

"Sorry," I told him, with an apologetic smile, risking to look back at him, seeing a sneaker mark across his face. Oops.

"S'okay," he answered. I didn't think he wanted another sample of bouche du pied **A/N, French for mouth of foot. **

We finally hauled ourselves over the side, gasping for breath, our arms and fingers feeling like someone had just weed-wacked them. (The only reason I knew what that felt like was when I had a dryad chase me around camp with one for eating a blueberry. I was only seven, okay?)

"Ugh," moaned Percy, flipping onto his stomach.

"Ouch," I agreed.

"Garr!" bellowed a voice, and it took me a few seconds to restart my already pounding heart.

Percy jumped, and I put my hand over his mouth, pointing over the edge of our little ledge.

Below us was the entrance to Polyphemus's cave, and standing in front of it was a very furious girl, tied up, hanging over a pot of boiling water, a satyr in a wedding dress, and a Cyclops with the attention span of a squirrel. Yep, just a normal day for a demigod.

"You're a feisty one," bellowed Polyphemus.

"Challenge me!" yelled Clarisse, her hair coming out of her quick ponytail to wave crazily around her face as she shook with anger. "Give my back my sword and I'll fight you!"

She never did change, did she? You'd think the disastrous event of Chaybdis and Scylla would have made some kind of imprint against her mind that _charging in full speed never worked. _Gods.

Polyphemus laughed. "Hmm. Eat loudmouthed girl or wait for wedding feast. What does my bride think?"

It literally took all of my willpower to not laugh as Polyphemus turned to Grover, who was in a wedding dress and high heels. Yeah, that's hot.

"Oh, um, I'm not hungry right now, dear. Maybe-" said Grover.

"Did you say bride?" asked Clarisse, shocked. "Grover?"

Oh, please Clarisse, don't ruin it.

"Shut up. She has to shut up," I mumbled.

"What 'Grover'?" asked Polyphemus.

"The satyr!" Clarisse answered back.

The Fates were definitely not in my favor today. Dang it.

"Oh!" said Grover, trying to save it. "The poor thing's brain is boiling from that hot water. Pull her down, dear!"

The Cyclops squinted and bent down. I prayed to the gods he wouldn't go down any farther, not just because of Grover, but also he was wearing a kilt. And, let me tell you, the part of him I could see was bad enough. I did not, ever in my life, want to see a flash of something.

"What satyr? Satyrs are good eating. You bring me a satyr?" he asked.

"No, you big idiot! That satyr! The one in the wedding dress!" yelled Clarisse.

Polyphemus ripped off Grover's wedding veil, showing the goat boy, horns and all. I wanted to strangle Clarisse.

"I don't see very well," breathed Polyphemus heavily. "Not since many years ago when the other hero stabbed me in the eye. But YOU'RE NO LADY CYCLOPS!"

_No, duh, Sherlock,_ I said in my head.

He tore off the wedding dress, showing the Grover I knew, wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

"Stop!" Grover practically begged. "Don't eat me raw! I-I have a good recipe!"

Nice save, Goat Boy.

Percy reached for his sword, but I grabbed his hand. "Wait."

"Recipe?" asked Polyphemus, interested.

"Oh y-yes! You don't want to eat me raw. You'll get E coli and botulism and all sorts of horrible things," Grover told him. "I'll taste much better grilled over a slow fire. With mango chutney! You could go get some mangos right now, down there in the woods! I'll just wait here."

Polyphemus got a confused look on his face. I could tell he was pondering this suggestion.

"Grilled satyr with mango chutney. You a satyr too?" asked the Cyclops to Clarisse.

I had to stifle a giggle behind my hand.

"No, you overgrown pile of dung! I'm a girl, the daughter of Ares! Now untie me so I can rip your arms off!"

"Rip my arms off," repeated Polyphemus, amused.

"And stuff them down your throat!" she told him.

"You got spunk."

"Let me down!" she yelled.

Polyphemus grabbed Grover, like he was no heavier then your average glass of ambrosia.

"Have to graze sheep now. Wedding postponed until tonight. Then we'll eat satyr for the main course!"

"But… you're still getting married? Who's the bride?" asked Grover uncertainly.

The Cyclops stole a glance at the furious girl hanging over the pot of boiling water.

"Oh, no. You can't be serious. I'm not-" Clarisse said, but was interrupted by Polyphemus plucking her off the rope.

The one eyed creature threw them into the cave. "Make yourselves comfortable! I will be back at sundown for the event."

Polyphemus whistled, and just like the Pied Piper, sheep exited the cave. Who knew Polyphemus was such a farmer.

Then he pushed a giant boulder in the way of the entrance, sealing Grover and Clarisse inside.

Great. Just one more thing to do.

Polyphemus walked off, mumbling under his breath. "Mangos. What are mangos?"

We tried everything to get inside that stupid cave. Tapping rocks, hacking it with my knife, but it was no use. We tried to get a signal to Grover, but even if he got it, we didn't get any reply.

"Trickery," I decided, when I realized trying to get the rock to move was no use. "We can't beat him by force, so we'll have to use trickery."

"Okay," Percy agreed. "What trick?"

"I haven't figured that part out yet," I admitted.

"Great."

Thanks for the support, Seaweed Brain. "Polyphemus will have to move the rock to let the sheep inside."

"At sunset, which is when he'll marry Clarisse and have Grover for dinner. I'm not sure which is grosser."

I had to agree with him. Grover being eaten would be bad, but Clarisse getting married? Pff, like that was going to happen. She'd be the worst wife ever. Especially when she has her electric spear with her.

"I could get inside," I told him. "Invisibly."

"What about me?" Percy asked.

I gave him my I-have-an-idea-and-it's-probably-not-going-to-be-in-your-best-interests, look. "The sheep. How much do you like sheep?"

After finding a suitable ewe for Percy, (I mean, after all, Percy on a guy sheep? Awkward!) I slipped on my invisibility cap and watched him latch onto the animal, almost hidden from view from above. "Just don't let go!" I advised him.

The sun went down, and before long, Polyphemus came, lumbering up the hill. "Oi! Goaties! Sheepies!"

The sheep moved in sync, trotting up the hill toward the cave. "This is it!" I whispered to Percy. "I'll be close by, don't worry."

Percy glared at me, straddling his sheep. It was a weird yet funny picture. Imagine him riding a horse, but upside down, the blood going to his head. And give the horse wool and an annoyed expression because someone is trying to give him a hug from the bottom up.

"Hasenpfeffer!" said the Cyclops, patting a sheep. "Einstein, Widget, eh there Widget!" He told Percy's sheep.

"Putting on some extra mutton there?" said Polyphemus, laughing. "Go on, fatty! Soon Polyphemus will eat you for breakfast!"

We walked into the cave, and I realized it was time to put our, -well, my, actually- plan. "Hello, ugly!" I yelled.

"Who said that?" said Polyphemus, confused.

"Nobody!" I yelled at him.

His face twisted in anger as I knew it would. "Nobody! I remember you!"

"You're too stupid to remember anybody, much less Nobody!" I taunted him. I was beginning to realize why Clarisse terrorized people. It was entertaining to see them angry, as they as they didn't hurt me.

Polyphemus picked up a rock, and I dove to the side as he chucked it at me, the wind buffeting me as it flew past, crashing into the cave wall.

"You haven't learned to throw any better, either!" I yelled at him.

"Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!" howled Polyphemus.

"You can't kill Nobody, you stupid oaf! Come find me!" I shouted.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Percy exit his sheep, and went off to Clarisse. Only a few more minutes of distraction. I could do this.

"Come get me!" I yelled, running behind Polyphemus so he wouldn't see Percy frantically untying Clarisse and Grover.

Polyphemus threw another rock, and this time, it clipped me on the shoulder. I rolled, my hat rolling off. A giant hand reached down and grabbed me.

"Ah!" I screamed, and then I dropped, down farther and farther.

_Crunch._

Dimly, I felt the pain, but soon, comforting darkness surrounded me, wrapping me in a cocoon of unconsciousness.

**Once again, sorry about not updating! Hope you liked this one!**

**Till next time, guys!**

**Review!**


	15. Migraine of the Gods

**Wassup, mi amigos? **

**Had the craziest dream last night. For the first time in my fourteen years of living, I realized that I was dreaming while in a dream. Unfortunately, as soon as I figured that out, a giant wall of baby food fell on me. Sometimes the weirdness of my inner mind surprises even me. :P **

**Sorry about not updating, I had frisbee Tuesday night, NECAPS (State testing) Monday through Wednesday, a school concert Thursday and Friday was my only day off. But we're back to business now. **

Cotix14 **Lol, no I wasn't trying to speak German. That was a nickname I gave to my mom for some odd reason. I am part German though. My mom's from Britain, and her parents live over in Stufenbach or however you spell that place. The German word for mom is… um… Muti I think, right? Lol, ur sister doesn't like PJO? Well, to all their own, I suppose. Lol, at least we can wait together for being chosen, whether PJO or Harry Potter :)**

past decembers **Haha, nah, hummus is not on my top 10 for favorite foods :P Lol I think my high school nerves are just because it's a change. I've been at my current school for 11 years, so everything's gunna be different :P**

Me **Haha, yes I am your average fourteen year old girl, with a crazy imagination who thinks that in life, she's going to go somewhere good. **

Son of The Sea 100896 ****Gives congratulatory hug** You've been commenting on my stories since…. Lets see… ch 9 of my first story, so it means a lot that you've been with me for so long!**

**No updates next weekend because I'm going on my 8th grade class trip to a water park for the weekend! I've been waiting for this moment for 11 years! Can't wait! Probably an update for either Bianca or Annabeth in the week. Depends on my schedule… But there should be one. Gods, I don't know, I'm not good with deadlines, but I'll deal with it!**

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**Migraine of the Gods**

My brain was pounding. Everything hurt. I was hanging on a thread from dropping into Hades. Literally. There was like… like… a gorilla with a hammer the size of a canoe paddle trying to play Mozart with my skull. Yeah, not fun.

Vaguely, I felt a bunch of rocks under me, and the sound of war cries. The hazy sounds of pain also reached my ears, but with my little gorilla friend pounding away, I couldn't tell who or what it was. Where was I, anyway?

A bell rang into my head that I could possibly be dying, but it was drowned out by the sounds around me. Something wrapped under my arms, half dragging slash carrying me toward someplace. I muttered something unintelligible, even to me. I didn't want to move. I just wanted some peace from this migraine bad enough for the gods. The uneven ground rolled and dipped, and I moaned. It just hurt so much. Head to toe, literally.

A ghostly chuckle filled me. I knew that voice. Hades.

_Come, little hero. Elysium is a wonderful place. A place has been picked for your arrival. _

No, _I protested. _There's so much I haven't done, so much I haven't seen. I have to stay!

_You are a strong one. That I can tell. It is your decision on whether to stay or go. I can only promise on the River Styx that your afterlife will be a happy one. We need an architect to figure out how to reroute the massive blockage. A war is going on, both godly and mortal. Lives are being lost. It's getting crowded down here. We could use your skills. _

My skills can be used here, _I retorted. _My friends need me. I can't abandon them now!

_As I said, hero, it is your choice alone to stay or go. The question is though, which will you choose?_

_The blackness around me, what I guessed was unconsciousness, began to dissipate and the view of a meadow, its brown and yellow grass and long, flowing like hair in the wind, but at the same time, still.. umm... grass. Trying not to get too deep into the dramatic details. I was sitting in the middle, the grass over my head._

What the heck is this, Hades? _I called. _Where am I?

_This is your choice. Walk out of the field before it burns, you are free to go. Stay, and be burned. You will join me in the Underworld. But be warned. Alone, you are weak. Together, you can beat it. Good luck, young hero…_

_Hades's voice faded, and I was alone in the field. Hades certainly did know how to make things dramatic. Dying, I suppose could be dramatic, but he was the bloody God of Death! Maybe he found amusement in my maybe-maybe not fatal choices. Either way, this was a pretty intense life or death scene. _

Well, this will be easy, _I thought. _I just have to get up and walk out. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

_I tried to move from my sitting position. _Oh, crap. Hades! You're not making this easy for me! _I yelled. _

_Silence. Great. I used all my willpower to try and move. A finger twitched. Well, it was a start. I was able to get into a crawling position after like, an eternity of agonizing slowness. This was going to suck. The end of the field was like, twenty yards away!_

_Then the field started smoking. Today was just not my day. There was no way things could get first. WAIT! Knock on wood! Knock on wood! Crap, there's no wood. I'm in a bloody field!_

_I slowly made my way toward the edge of the field, the heat of the fire starting to burn my skin. This was not good._

_The flames licked at my sluggish feet as I crawled slowly. _Ow! Hot! _I cried. The edge of the field was just so far away. There was no way I could make it._

_I stopped, seeing the inevitable. Hades had made a trap, making sure that one way or another, I would end up rerouting traffic for the rest of eternity._

Wise Girl!

_The sound of Percy's voice echoed, as if I was listening to him from across a cave, or a deep chasm. Gods, I was turning into Hades, with his dramatic scenes! Someone kill me now. Well, that's sort of defeats the purpose, I guess. I'm trying to survive, but now I just asked to die. I take it all back._

Come on, get up already. I've been waiting! You don't want to be left behind, do you? I thought you liked being first. Up you go then!

_Why was he so cheerful? I was being freaking burned! I don't know if it was my anger at him for being so carefree, or just some random thing happening in my state of life or death, but I was able to stand up and leave the field._

_Good choice, hero. Go back to your friends. They are waiting…_

I blinked, and realized my little gorilla friend who enjoyed Mozart was fading, thank the gods. Percy was above me, his hair falling into his face, eyes worried. My eyes turned and saw Grover.

I was sort of out of it, and my brain wasn't thinking very clearly, so the first thing I said was, "You're… not married?"

Grover grinned. "No. My friends talked me out of it."

"Annabeth, just stay still," said Percy.

I didn't want to stay still. I felt like running forever and ever! It was like I was on a sugar rush! Trust me, ADHD plus sugar rush can come out to some interesting things.

I looked down. I was… sparkling? Oh, gods, did I turn into a vampire or something? That would explain the needing to run, the intense pain from before. I have expected to watch Edward Cullen walk into this little scene with a depressed face, moaning about how he wished he were human. Well, try being a freaking demigod, buddy. Suck it up.

I sat up, looking around. The Fleece was around me, and I stared at it wonderingly as Percy said something to someone. The power of it was… amazing. I could feel it pulse through me, healing me more quickly then what I could have thought possible.

"Keep the Fleece around you," urged Percy. "Just in case you're not fully healed yet. Can you stand?"

I tried to stand, but a hot fire of pain struck my chest. I dropped back to the ground. "Ohh. _Not_fully healed."

Clarisse dropped next to me and felt my chest. –No! I know what you're thinking! Not that way! Gods, you guys… anyways, she felt my _ribs _and I gasped in pain.

"Ribs broken," declared Clarisse. "They're mending, but definitely broken."

"How can you tell?" Percy asked.

"Because I've broken a few, runt! I'll have to carry her."

Before I had time to blink, I was lifting into the air and thrown over her shoulders like a freaking sack of potatoes and continued to jog down to the beach."

"Thi-s-is-not-hel-ping-me!" I cried as I was bounced.

"Deal with it, Brainiac."

I scowled. The Fleece seemed to be helping though. My ribs weren't hurting as much.

We reached the beach, and I saw Percy's face become constipated again, so I guessed he was like, calling the ship.

"_Here, shippy, shippy, shippy! Come to Percy!" _I imagined Percy calling.

The ship sailed around the island after a few minutes.

"Incoming!" yelled Tyson. Where the Hades had he come from? How freaking long had I been out? He was running down the beach, a huge herd of sheep, probably man-eating, close behind.

"They probably won't follow us into the water," Percy said to us. "All we have to do is swim to the ship."

"With Annabeth like this?" protested Clarisse.

"We can do it!" insisted Percy. "Once we get to the ship, we're home free."

And that was how I ended up swimming in a freezing cold ocean, with broken ribs, a headache, and a fifty pound Fleece strapped to me.

That was when Polyphemus sprinted down the beach with a giant rock in each hand.

Oh, gods.

**Yes, once again, a short chapter, but what did you expect? Annabeth was unconscious, so I had to get a little creative…**

**And btw, does anyone get emotional over books and movies? I was reading the last book of the Song of the Lioness series, and first, when Thom died, I started crying. I pulled myself together, then Faithful died. Then, (It goes on and on…) Liam died, and I started positively bawling. Then, when Alanna got Liam's note, and I started sobbing terribly. And the weird thing is, I never cry in real life. Its like, those "can't show weakness" survival things. Sorry that was sort of random, but I just remembered it and was hoping I wasn't the only one. **

**Bianca coming tomorrow! Or, well, today, since I'm updating this at like 1 am… ANYways, yeah.**

**Review!**


	16. I am a Genius

**Hey, Fanfictioner peoples!**

**In a sad mood today… :( My dad wants me to change my Drawing and Painting class in high school to Algebra II… If I wanna get into a competitive college, I need at least 6 math courses (Bleh, Ikr?) to get into a competitive college. But my schedule is absolutely full. I'm busy trying to find out where I would put it in my sophomore year, but anyways, yeah, not in a good mood. At all. I'll try to keep this chapter happy though.**

**At the same time I'm in a good mood though. Don't you just love those cashiers who are really friendly? I walk into the store to get the paper for my dad the place is empty except for cashier and he's like "Hey, having a good day?" And I'm "yeah, pretty good. You?" "I'm having an awesome day. That will be seventy five dollars" (the newspaper was 75 cents) and I handed him a dollar. "Hey, you owe me 74 dollars!" he joked. I laughed and walked out. Good times, good times :P**

**Anyways, I'm glad I'm not the only one to get emotional over books. Phew! Quick shout outs to **I'mDifferent-GetOverIt, summergirl881, Cotex14, no chance, theoriginalclichedlostsoul, and whoever left a blank spot instead of some sort of name to be identified.

**Quick reminder, no updates this Friday, Saturday, or Sunday 8****th**** grade class trip! Going to Six Flags Water Park! Heck ya! **

Son of The Sea 100896 **Crazy as I'll ever be! Haven't slept in the past month? That doesn't sound good… **

Summergirl881 **Completely agree of the creativity part :) I don't like being pitied, either. That's why I try to keep a happy look on everything, even when they aren't very happy… :( **

Dayforall **Thanks for the high school support! Yeah, I'm going from 180 kids school to a 2,000 kids school. Whoop di diddly doo.**

past decembers **Yes, sadly, eleven years. Two pre-k, one kindergarten, and 1-8****th**** grade. And lol yes, I did take the Percy calling to Annabeth thing from the River Styx part. Some of it though, was kinda loosely based on the Ordeal for knights in the books by Tamora Pierce (Which are really good! I might add!)**

theoriginalclichedlostsoul **Geez that takes a while to type, but oh, well, I like it :) Don't worry, being crazy is what makes life interesting :P**

whoever left a blank spot instead of some sort of name to be identified **Lol, are you talking about Song of the Lioness? If you are, IKR! When Thom was dying and he said the words "Love you-Always have-Always will" and then died, I was bawling! :'( **

**And guys remember. This is very important: **_**Read, Review, and Favorite! :P**_

**I'm a Genius**

"You'd think he'd run out of rocks," muttered Percy.

I looked around. Rock, rock, rock, broken ship, rock, rock. Oh hey, wadda ya know? Another rock. Not likely, Seaweed Brain.

"Swim for it!" said Grover and we doggy paddled as fast as we could toward the boat, except for Percy, who swam so easily through the water, you'd think he was the Little Mermaid or something.

"You, young Cyclops!" called Polyphemus. "Traitor to your kind!"

Tyson froze.

"Don't listen to him!" Percy pleaded, tugging his arm. "Come on!"

"I am not a traitor," said Tyson, anger in his voice.

"You serve mortals!" screamed Polyphemus. "Thieving humans!"

We humans weren't _that _thieving. Well, aside from two Stoll brothers and most of their siblings. But that didn't count.

Polyphemus threw the first rock, but Tyson merely swatted it aside.

"Not a traitor. And you are not my kind," repeated Tyson.

Yeah! Burned Polyphemus!

"Death or victory!" yelled the Cyclops, and charged into the ocean. Then he fell flat on his face. He deserved it.

Clarisse, Grover, and I were almost at the ship by now, panting, because we were lugging the seventy pound Fleece along with us.

"Percy!" yelled Clarisse. "Come on!"

We were too far away to hear what Tyson told Percy, but Percy brought out his sword, while Tyson picked up a rock. Uh oh.

Polyphemus walked closer, wary. His arm stretched back and chucked a rock. Percy rolled out of the way, while Tyson just smashed it with his fist. Tyson was like the Hulk. Nothing got in his way. He was just like, Roar! And everything moved out of his way. What did that make Percy? Oh, right, the Little Mermaid.

A random twenty-foot wave appeared, and Percy caught it, using his powers to ride the wave, kicking the Cyclops in the eye, then leaped over it's head and landing neatly behind him. I had to admit. Percy had some style when it came to fighting.

"Destroy you!" spluttered Polyphemus. "Fleece stealer!"

"You stole the Fleece! You've been using it to lure satyrs to their deaths!" retorted Percy.

Clarisse had reached the rope ladder and was starting to climb up.

"So? Satyrs are good eating!" replied Polyphemus. Grover made a gagging sound.

"The Fleece should be used to heal! It belongs to the children of the gods!" said Percy.

I began my own ascent up the flimsy rope ladder.

"I am a child of the gods! Father Poseidon, curse this thief!" yelled Polyphemus to the ocean.

"Poseidon won't curse me," scoffed Percy. "I'm his son, too. He won't play favorites."

I was at the top of the ladder now, and was struggling to get over the railing with the cursed Fleece soaked and wrapped around me.

Polyphemus roared in anger. "Humans not the same! Nasty, tricky, lying!"

Grover gave me a boost, and I toppled over the side, landing on the edge. Clarisse started to frantically wave at Percy, signaling that it was time to go.

I saw Polyphemus rip a huge olive tree out of the ground. Ooh. One dryad was not going to be happy.

"Young one! Where are you? Help me!" yelled the giant monster.

Tyson stopped from running back to the ship.

"You weren't raised right! Poor orphaned brother! Help me!" he shouted.

"Don't fight, Cyclops brother. Put down the-"

_Smack!_

I let out a squeak as Tyson was thrown across the land like a baseball.

"Tyson!" shouted Percy. "No!"

He raced toward the Cyclops, anger turning his multiple sword swipes deadly. Soon, Tyson joined the fight, and as the dusty sand settled, I saw Percy, his sword pointed toward the monsters heart, Tyson pinning him down.

With a few words to each other, Tyson and Percy jumped away and began racing toward the ship.

"I will smash you!" yelled Polyphemus, doubling over.

Tyson and Percy dove into the sea.

"Where are you?" called Polyphemus.

Tyson and Percy began coming silently toward our ship.

"Yeah, Jackson! In your face, Cyclops!" yelled Clarisse.

"Shut up!" I hissed, but she didn't seem to hear me.

"Raar!" yelled the one-eyed monster, and threw the rock, thankfully missing our ship.

"Yeah, yeah! You throw like a wimp! Teach you to try marrying me, you idiot!"

Gods, sometimes I really hated that girl.

Percy obviously felt the same. "Clarisse! Shut up!"

Polyphemus threw another rock, and it crashed through the hull of our lovely ship.

Next thing I knew, I was sinking deeper and deeper into the dark depths of the ocean. The Fleece pulled down my already weakened body, and the air was being used up. Blackness was slowly enclosing my eyes when I felt something under me, and a strong arm wrap around my waist, lifting me to the surface. I took a deep breath. My eyes clearing. I was exhausted.

"Did it," I managed. "We…"

Words failed me. I was so tired.

The person behind me wrapped the Fleece closer around me.

"You're a genius," said Percy quietly.

I smiled. Of course I was. I was a daughter of Athena, wasn't I?

Darkness closed around me, and I dropped off the edge of consciousness.

**Darn you, Rick Riordan! Why such short chapters! There will be another one tomorrow I think. Depends, cuz I have horse back riding for an hour after school, then an orthodontist appointment… We'll just have to se, I suppose!**

**Tata for now!**

**Review!**


	17. How To Trick an Evil Person 101

**Hey, PJO Fanatics! (Happy,** Son of The Sea 100896?)** haha =P**

**Lol, anyways, I couldn't resist doing another Annabeth chapter =) After being so many ittle bittle chapters for the book, I thought you deserved something more substantial. Unfortunately, that means no Bianca until next Monday or Tuesday. Oh, well!**

**Random question of the update: Who likes the song Rolling in the Deep by Adele, or The Script For the First Time? **

**And, btw, if there are some errors, I was eating a burger while writing this lol.**

GhostDog401 **Haha, hold on, no need to threaten! Lol, unless something really bad happens or I'm away for a while! =P**

ArrayaLight **Lol, at least now I know who it is! Haha, don't worry, we all have those blond moments =P My friends say I should have been born blond, with the amount of things I do. (Ex, I got my foot stuck in a climbing wall, or falling over nothing)**

Summergirl881 **Ch-ya! Chariot race! I cannot believe I totally forgot about that =) It's gunna be interesting =P**

Son of The Sea 100896 **Lol, five weeks? Geez… **shakes head mockingly** Math isn't the worst subject for me, just because I find it easy to understand (My dads a math professor, so if I get stuck I can just ask him) Nearly tested into Algebra 2 for freshman year, but I learned the f(x) thing the week **_**after **_**the test, so it didn't help =/. Good luck with pre calc! =)**

Phantom Listener 101 **Lol, no need to wait any longer! (At least for this update =P) **

Cotix14 **Lol, I wish I could get caramel drunk again =P That was awesome! Unfortunately, I ran out like the second day after I got them. =(**

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**How To Trick an Evil Person 101**

My eyes blinked open in the bright sunshine, and for a second, I didn't know where I was. Then I saw the neck of the hippocampi I was riding, the feeling of two arms draped around my waist, and a _very _heavy body of the unconscious Percy behind me. Jeez, what did he eat, one hundred pound cakes? Who knew a Seaweed Brain weighed so much?

I wiggled around trying to get a more comfortable position, so that Percy wasn't crushing me, and leaned back into his chest while I rode the hippocampi. I saw Tyson, passed out on his water horse, Rainbow, and Clarisse and Grover. Clarisse who was kinda awake, kinda not. Grover, well, if we didn't put food under his nose, there was no way we were going to awake him.

For some reason though, Clarisse found the strength to get one look of Percy and I on the hippocampi, and raise her eyes in a mocking fashion.

I rolled my eyes. What? I mouthed, not wanting to wake Percy and have him listen to this awkward conversation between me and Clarisse. It was girl talk, even though the word "girl" was loosely used, seeing as we could both kick any of the guys' butts. Well, except Tyson. But he didn't really count as our species, specifically, did he?

She just kept that mocking eyebrow raised and gestured to me leaning against Percy's sleeping body.

What was she thinking? There was barely enough room for one person on a hippocampi. I might as well make myself comfortable while I'm at it.

I decided for a little fun, and nodded my head toward Grover with a smirk.

Fun rewarded. Clarisse got the most shocked face I'd ever seen. Then a slightly green face. Revenge fulfilled, and I turned smugly toward the direction we were going.

Land ho! The hippocampi stopped when the horizon showed towering buildings and palm trees. I was pretty sure we were somewhere in Florida, Miami maybe.

I nudged my hippocampi forward, but he whinnied and tossed his head, not moving an inch. Tyson had woken from his slumber and talked quietly to Rainbow, while Clarisse was shaking Grover, rather roughly, I might add to wake him up.

I turned my torso around so that I could see Percy, and shook his shoulder gently.

"Percy, get up."

"Uuunnnnhhhgg…"

"Percy!"

"Lummmmerrr…"

Gods, boys. The took forever to wake up. I grabbed a handful of water and splashed it on his face.

That got a response. I shook his shoulder and said, "Percy, wake up."

Bleary bright green eyes opened, and stared around, confused.

"Miami, I think," I told him. "But the hippocampi are acting funny."

He saw our restless mounts, and used his magical powers to have a conversation with the water creature.

"This is as far as they'll take us," said Percy finally. "Too many humans. Too much pollution. We'll have to swim to shore ourselves."

Great. How long was I going to lug this Fleece around? Luckily, since we were so close to the mortal world, it had started it's change into red and gold high school jacket with a omega on it.

Tyson said a tearful goodbye with Rainbow, collecting the various things he had acquired from our quest of sorts.

We reached the shore, already drying in the sun as Grover put on some shoes and his cap to hide his little horns.

I ran to the nearest newspaper box, worried. I cursed in ancient Greek. "June eighteenth! We've been away from camp ten days!"

"That's impossible!" gaped Clarisse.

I stared at the date worried. How close was Thalia's pine tree from dying now?

"Thalia's tree must be almost dead by now," said Grover. "We have to get the Fleece back tonight."

The deadline ringed in my ears. Florida to New York? Only planes are that fast, and Percy on a plane equaled being shocked out of the sky. Ouch.

Clarisse sat on a curb. "How are we supposed to do that? We're hundreds of miles away. No money, no ride. This is just like the Oracle said. This is your fault Jackson. If you hadn't interfered-"

Whoa, whoa. Percy's fault? What was wrong in that pea-sized brain of hers? A wave of red-hot anger flowed through me. "Percy's fault? Clarisse, how can you say that? You are the biggest-"

"Stop it!" yelled Percy, exasperated. He turned to Clarisse. "Clarisse, what did the Oracle tell you, exactly?"

"_You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone,_

_You shall find what you seek and make it your own,_

_But despair for your life entombed in stone,_

_And fail without friends to fly home alone."_

Gods, talk about depressing.

"Ouch," said Grover, reading my mind.

"No," said Percy thoughtfully. "No… wait a minute. I've got it. Does anyone have any money?"

Grover and I shook our heads. I'd lost it all when the Hydra attacked us, all those days ago.

"Cash… like green paper?" asked Tyson.

"Yeah," said Percy, turning to him.

"Like the kind in the duffel bags?" checked Tyson.

Percy seemed confused now. "Yeah, but we lost those bags days ag-g-g-"

For a second I thought Percy was having a seizure or something, but Tyson pulled out a Ziploc bag full of cash. Was there enough in there to bye me a burger? I was starving.

"Tyson!" breathed Percy. "How did you…"

"Thought it was a feed bag for Rainbow. Found it floating in the sea. Only paper inside. Sorry."

Percy began counting the money faster then I'd ever seen a dyslexic demigod count, even Connor and Travis Stoll after a major bet.

He raced to where a taxi was letting a family of vacationers out. "Clarisse!" he called back. "Come on, you're going to the airport. Annabeth, give her the Fleece."

Wait, whaat?

Percy grabbed the jacket and put it in Clarisse's arms, sliding the money into it.

"You'd let me-" stuttered Clarisse.

"It's your quest. We only have enough money for one flight. Besides, I can't travel by air. Zeus would blast me into million pieces. That's what the prophecy meant: You'd fail without friends, meaning you'd need our help, but you'd have to fly home alone. You have to get the Fleece back safely," Percy explained.

Clarisse's brain worked, suspicion in her eyes at first, then understanding. She jumped into the cab. "You can count on me. I won't fail."

"Not failing would be good," agreed Percy.

The cab raced away. I was still kind of shell-shocked.

"Percy, that was so-" I started.

"Generous?" offered Grover.

"Insane," I said. "You're betting the lives of everybody at camp that Clarisse will get the Fleece back by tonight?"

"It's her quest," he said, shrugging. "She deserves a chance.

"Percy is nice," said Tyson.

"Percy is too nice," I grumbled, hiding my surprise. Percy had just given away something that could change demigod history forever without batting an eyelash. It was so… so… sincere. Sometimes I wondered if deserved a friend like him.

"Come on," said Percy smiling. "Let's find a way home."

Now, I was expecting us to arrive at camp a few days later, celebrations for Clarisse, blah, blah, blah, but what I did not expect when I turned around was to see Luke, his sword pointing right at Percy's throat.

Oh, gods.

"Hey, cuz," said Luke with mock happiness. "Welcome back to the States."

Our little bear friends, Agrius and Oreius, grabbed Grover and I by our shirt collars. Agrius tried to get Tyson, but he punched the thing into a pile of luggage and roared at Luke.

"Percy," scolded Luke. "Tell your giant friend to back down our I'll have Oreius bash your friends' heads together."

Suddenly, I was lifted into the air. I kicked out behind me, yelling at the beast to let me go, but to no avail. How was I going to beat a bear dude without any weapons, except my knife? There was no way I could get in close enough to attack, if I got out of Oreius's grip at all.

"What do you want, Luke?" Percy demanded.

Luke smiled, the scar on his face stretching. "Why Percy, I want to extend my hospitality, of course."

He gestured to the giant boat that was docked in the harbor. It was the Princess Andromeda, screaming figurehead and all. How in Hades had I missed that?

We were herded onto the cruise ship like cattle, and thrown onto a deck filled with sparkly swimming pools and decorative fountains. A bunch of Luke's minions, including some dracaena, Laistrygonians, and some (sadly) demigods, to watch us be given hospitality, aka something probably painful.

"And so," said Luke, circling us. "The Fleece, where is it?"

He looked us over, poking Percy in the chest with his sword, and using the tip of it to lift the edge of Grover's jeans.

"Hey! That's real goat fur under there!" protested Grover.

"Sorry, old friend," said Luke, not really sorry at all. "Just give me the Fleece and I'll leave you to return to your, ah, little nature quest."

"Blaa-ha-hah!" bleated Grover. "Some old friend!"

"Maybe you didn't hear me," said Luke threateningly. "Where. Is. The. Fleece?"

"Not here," blurted Percy. Gods, he was not good at being silent. I had a feeling if someone went all good-cop-bad-cop on him, he would spill his guts. "We sent it on ahead of us. You messed up."

Luke's eyes narrowed. "You're lying. You couldn't have…" His eyes darkened in recognition. "Clarisse?"

He nodded.

"You trusted… you gave…" stuttered Luke, speechless.

"Yeah."

"Agrius!" Luke shouted.

The bear-guy flinched. "Y-yes?"

"Get below and prepare my steed. Bring it to the deck. I need to fly to the Miami Airport, fast!"

"But boss-" protested Agrius.

"Do it!" yelled Luke. "Or I'll feed you to the drakon!" The giant lumbered down into the other floors of the massive ship.

Geez, he sounded crazier than a loony toon.

The crew of the ship shifted, uneasy. I guessed that their leader didn't act like this much.

Percy scoped out the boat, probably looking for an escape. "You've been toying with us along. You wanted us to bring the Fleece and save you the trouble of getting it."

Luke's eyes danced crazily. "Of course, you idiot! And you've messed everything up!"

"Traitor!" yelled Percy, and he threw a gold drachma at Luke.

Yes, Percy. You can single-handedly defeat Luke by throwing a coin at him and save the world. Seaweed Brain.

"You tricked all of us!" yelled Percy. "Even DIONYSUS AT CAMP HALF-BLOOD!"

Gods, Percy, no need to yell everything! I'm kinda standing right next to you!

Then my eye caught something. Behind everyone, the mist shimmered. Percy was a genius! Grover opened his mouth, probably in to shout out that there was an iris message. I pinched him in the side, just to be sure that he didn't say anything.

"This is no time for heroics, Percy. Drop your puny sword, or I'll have you killed sooner rather than later," said Luke.

"Who poisoned Thalia's tree, Luke?" demanded Percy.

"I did, of course," Luke snarled. "I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus."

"Chiron had nothing to do with it?"

"Ha! You know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn't have the guts," retorted Luke.

"You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?" asked Percy.

"You don't understand the half of it. I was going to let you take the Fleece… once I was done with it."

Percy hesitated. What was Luke going to use the Fleece for?

"You were going to heal Kronos," accused Percy.

Oh, duh, me.

"Yes! The Fleece's magic would've sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven't stopped us, Percy. You've only slowed us down a little," said Luke with a smile.

"And so you poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us up, all to help Kronos destroy the gods," Percy checked.

"You know that!" growled Luke. "Why do you keep asking me?"

"Because I want everyone in the audience to hear you."

I had tried to keep my eyes off the iris message so that no one saw, me, but now I turned my head to see Mr. D, Tantalus, and all the other campers watching this scene unfold in silence.

"Well," said Mr. D. "Some unplanned dinner entertainment."

"Mr. D, you heard him. You all heard Luke. The poisoning of the tree wasn't Chiron's fault."

Mr. D sighed. "I suppose not."

"The iris message could be a trick," said Tantalus, but he was more concentrated on catching the runaway cheeseburger.

"I fear not," said Mr. D, with a look of disgust on his face. "It appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as the activities director. I suppose I do miss the old horse's pinochle games."

Tantalus grabbed the cheeseburger. "I got it!" he cried

"We are no longer in need of your services, Tantalus," said Mr. D.

"What? But-"

"You may return to the Underworld. You are dismissed."

"No! But- Nooooooo!" cried Tantalus. He tried to take a bite of his burger, but it was too late. The uneaten burger plopped onto the plate, and the campers burst into cheers.

This was probably the first and last time I was ever going to think this, but Yeah, Mr., D!

Luke yelled in rage, slashing the iris message again and again until the only thing left was the normal mist. But the damage had been done. Chiron was cleared of his accusations.

"Kronos was right, Percy. You are an unreliable weapon. You need to be replaced. You'll never leave this boat alive," said Luke.

Luke's minions stepped forward.

Oh, come on, Olympian gods and goddesses! Couldn't you give us a break?

**Haha, finally a long chapter! Hope you all liked!**

**Remember, no updates this weekend!**

**Tata for now, ya'll!**

**Review!**


	18. Nom Nom Nom

**Wassup, the People of Earth (At least, I hope you all are from Earth, lol)**

**I am so exhaug….. (Sorry was yawning) –sted. A girl can only take so little sleep after a weekend full of water parks, go karts, laser tag, mini golf, roller blading, all nighters, Elmo, Lord of the Rings, Mr. Woodcock, and some very awkwardly hilarious truth or dare/would you rather games. This pretty much means I HAD THE BEST TIME OF MY LIFE! Hehe… Had to go to school the next day though, so half the class (That actually showed up) fell asleep in Guidance Class, (including me =P) Graduating in sixteen days O_o never gunna see my school again! **

**Sorry for not updating in a while, just been a busy week. Passed out Monday, two hours of Frisbee Tuesday, and horseback riding Wednesday. Bianca should be Sunday, depending on whether I go see the new Pirates movie with my groupies or not…  
**

Arrayalight **True dat! The Script is awesomely awesome =)**

Nikeroxx **Totally luvin that idea for Thuke story… that may be my new series of one shots? And also love the "And Rainbow Sprinkles" Mind if I steal that? Lol =P**

Cotix14 **Aww, thank you! And Please keep reviewing! I love reading what people think of my stories =P**

past decembers **Sigh, sometimes Annabeth is just so… so…. Blind about her feelings, eh? And Tamora Pierce writes fantasy about girl heroes (Heck ya!) in a land called Tortall, that is like olden age, with Knights and sorcerers, yadda yadda yadda. I think you should start with Wild Magic if you ever want to read some of them! She has like… different characters for quartets, but you meet old characters… Yeah, I'm not very good at explaining things, but… haha just check it out =P**

Jesse305 **Lol, I think the same way. Just gender against gender, I guess =)**

Son of The Sea 100896 **Geez, trig in freshman year? O_o nice! And haha, I guess mockingly wasn't the right words. I can barely pull an all-nighter without passing out…. **Shakes head sadly** would be better. **

C-Nuggets N.L **Lol, haha reading ur review had me ROFL (In a good way, of course) haha =) **

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**Nom Nom Nom**

"One on one," Percy challenged. "What are you afraid of?"

Luke's eyes narrowed and his lip curled. I guess being challenged by Percy wasn't the most… err… appetizing thing on his menu of the day.

Before he could answer though, probably in a mocking or evil tone, Agrius flew out from the lower decks, a jet-black Pegasus in tow.

The horse whinnied angrily at the bear creature and Luke. Now, me, I couldn't speak horse. Nor did I particularly want to. But, from the sounds coming from it's muzzle, and the shocked, slightly disgusted look on Percy's face, I was pretty sure it wasn't anything like "I'm frolicking through a field of flowers! Whee!" I was pretty sure some of the words had been banned by the gods from human language.

"Sir! Your steed is ready!" said Agrius, avoiding a hoof. Too bad. I would have liked to see the flying horse kick some bear-dude butt.

Luke kept looking at Percy. "I told you last summer, Percy. You can't bait me into a fight."

"And you keep avoiding one," Percy pointed out. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"

Holy Hades, Percy really knew how to get people into bad situations. I guess that was because he was an expert at getting himself into even worse things. Unfortunately, that usually meant I was stuck in the situation, too.

"I'll kill you quickly," decided Luke.

A pang of sadness went through me. Where was the Luke I used to know? The one who used to practice fight with me, the one who would steal ice cream cones, just for a treat. The guy who would give me brotherly noogies, who always knew what to say when things were bad? That Luke had to be somewhere inside this shell of a person. Now all I saw were blue eyes like ice, cruel smirks, showing no emotion but anger and pain.

Gods, my life was like Star Wars. Luke had gone to the dark side. What did that make me? Leigh? Gods, and that means I was kissing Hans. Who the Hades was Hans? If Percy was Luke Skywalker, that meant Hans was…. Gulp… _Grover. _No freaking way, even if the world was in peril and I had never had my first kiss (Which I may or may have not had), and he was the only one near me. Time to stop thinking about unthinkable things, Annabeth. Let's not go into this little mind conversation ever again.

I looked back to the scene in front of me. One of Luke's goons threw him a shield.

"Luke," I pleaded. "At least give him a shield."

"Sorry, Annabeth," said Luke with a grin. "You bring your own equipment to this party."

Yeah, Luke. Party of Death.

Both Luke and Percy had advantages and disadvantages. With a shield, you had better protection. Without, more agility, speed. It could go either way.

Luke cut down a savage stroke, almost killing Percy if he hadn't been ready. Gods curse his gift with a sword.

The fight began with a bang. They moved so fast, I could barely tell what was happening. They seemed about even, as far as I could tell.

Percy suddenly dropped into a nearby pool, and shot out of it, a funnel of water pushing him upward. It was awesome.

The splash hit Luke head-on, knocking him down. But before Percy could attack, he rolled up and jumped out of the way.

Percy was holding his ground with his natural skill with a sword, but it was Luke who had the experience. Luke was the one whose actions were perfectly timed from years and years of practice.

Suddenly, Luke dropped, and for a second I thought Percy had gotten a strike in, until I saw the flick of a bronze sword, and the agonizing cry of pain from Percy.

On his thigh was an increasingly larger splotch of something dark and red. Blood.

My breath caught in my throat. A little whimper escaped me, lost in the heat of the battle. What was happening?

"Perrrrcy!" bleated Grover.

Percy fell to the ground, kneeling. He tried vainly to stand, but collapsed.

Percy…

He tried to crawl over to the pool, but Luke strutted over, his sword glinting with blood.

No…

No!

I fought as hard as I could in Oreius's grip. No! Percy! Something slapped me upside the head and everything went blurry.

Geez, I've had more hits to the head to the head on this quest, (Which, may I add, wasn't even mine!) I was going to have a major concussion.

My eyes cleared, and I saw Luke smiling cruelly, as usual. "One thing I want you to watch before you die, Percy."

He looked toward us with a smirk. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon appétit."

There was no way this stupid monster was going to eat me. I had an image of my head on a platter with an apple in my mouth. And I don't even like apples!

"He-he. He-he," cackled Oreius and raised Grover and I in the air. His hot smelly breath washed over me. Gods, was the last sight of my life going to be my face going into the thing's mouth? Not on the top of my "How I want to die" list, if you know what I mean.

Being a demigod, a lot of weird stuff happens to me. Just a quick count of my fingers:

1: Woke up with a pegasus in my bed. It was a twin bed, too.

2: Reading a book outside when a random flock of geese walked past. Yeah, walked. Not flew.

3: Opening my eyes from tanning/sleeping on the beach near camp to find Connor Stoll above me, about to pour something unnamable on my head.

But even I was weirded out when an arrow sprouted out of Oreius's mouth, and a bunch of centaurs came running out onto the ship, painted different colors, looking like Indians, holding paintball guns. Gods, I loved being a half-blood. Being mortal was just not exciting.

"Brother!" yelled Agrius, dropping the reigns of the black pegasus. It kicked the bear monster in the stomach and flew off into the bay, free as the wind.

Free as the wind? Gods, I was turning into, like, some poetry sap that stared at sunsets for a living.

Then chaos ensued. Centuars were everywhere, paintballs were fired.

"Come get some!" yelled a centaur, and I felt myself lifted from the ground on which I had been dropped and hefted onto someone's back, Grover behind me. A familiar back with curly brown hair on the head.

"Chiron!" I cried, wrapping my arms around him, inhaling the familiar scent of horse and shaving cream.

"Hello, child. You know I have only been gone a week, correct?" said Chiron, and I heard the smile in his voice. "Withdraw, brethren!" he called.

We galloped away, and I caught a glimpse of Percy and Tyson on another centaur. If you haven't ridden a centaur in a full gallop, you haven't lived. It's like flying. They have these awesome powers, I guess you could call them, to be as fast as a plane. It's a total adrenaline rush.

We stopped at what I thought was the centaur camp, a.k.a, tricked out horse trailers.

Percy's centaur set him onto a picnic blanket, while I watched some strange centaur ritual of sorts. "Dude! Did you see that bear guy? He was all like: Whoa, I have an arrow in my mouth!"

"That was awesome!" another answered. "Head slam!" and they proceeded to run at each other full speed and do a major head butt. My head started to hurt as I heard the clunk of the skulls crashing together. Ouch.

Chiron let us hop down, shaking his head. "I really wish my cousins wouldn't slam their heads together. They don't have enough brain cells to spare."

"Chiron," said Percy breathlessly. "You saved us."

Chiron gave him a dry smile. "Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you've cleared my name."

"But how did you know where we were?" I pressed.

"Advanced planning, my dear. If figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."

"Gee, thanks," mumbled Grover, and I stifled a giggle.

"No, no," stumbled Chiron. "I didn't mean… oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr. The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy's Iris-message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It them took no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans."

Percy glanced over to where some centaurs were teaching Tyson to use a paintball gun. Oh, crap, that was not good. Tyson plus Paintball equals Death.

"So what now?" asked Percy. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him, anyway."

Chiron knelt carefully and cut the cloth around Percy's wound. I flinched. How could he be acting so casual when he had a gaping wound on his leg? Wasn't there like, a major artery in your leg?

"I'm afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw. We didn't have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organized enough to pursue us. Nobody won," he answered.

"But we got the Fleece!" I retorted. "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now."

"You are all true heroes," said Chiron, nodding. "And as soon as we get Percy fixed up, you must return to Half-Blood Hill. The centaurs shall carry you."

"You're coming, too?" checked Percy.

"Oh, yes, Percy. I'll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate Dean Martin's music."

_Or anyone else in the twenty-first century, _I added silently.

"-Besides, I must have some words with Mr. D. There's the rest of the summer to plan. So much training to do. And I want to see… I'm curious about the Fleece."

Silence fell around us, and we kept to our thoughts for a bit.

"Annabeth," said Chiron finally. "Perhaps you and Grover would go supervise Tyson and my cousins before they, ah, teach each other too many bad habits?"

I looked into Chiron's eyes and saw that he wanted to talk to Percy alone.

"Sure, Chiron. Come on, goat boy," I answered.

"But I don't like paintball," whined Grover.

Sigh, sometimes he just didn't catch onto things fast enough. "Yes, you do," I retorted, and hoisted him to his hooves.

The paintball battle that followed was awesome. It involved me, Grover, and about half the centaurs on one team and Tyson and the other horse-men on the other.

Turns out, I was awesome with a paintball gun, and quickly gained the advantage.

Grover, well, he was curled in a fetal position behind a rock as various paintballs splattered around him. He forgot which way our base was, and was facing the enemy line.

I loved my life.

**Ta da! All finished for another chapter! Guess what? Only two more chapters left until the end of book two! Who would have known I had it in me to finish two books in about five months! Oh yea!**

**No updates until Sunday, since I have babysitting tomorrow, movies Saturday. Going to try to finish this book this weekend, though, and get a Bianca chapter in.**

**Hope you liked!**

**Review!**


	19. KISSING

**Sup, my Fanfictioners!**

**Who's luving the new updates for your account? Cuz I sure am =)**

**Yes, I'm sorry, I know I said Sunday, but the weather was just so nice, for the first time since winter, and my family had this badminton tournament, (Which, when you're with my family, it gets pretty interesting) and then there was Kayaking on memorial day... Anyways, just sorry!**

**Also, OMG, thanks to **Cotix14 **For showing me this, the first chapter of SoN is on Rick Riordan's site! And I read, entranced. SPOILER: The thing I didn't like is that it was 3rd person point of view. I like 1st person... I couldn't really get an insight to Percy's thoughts! :(**

**Just finished watching Dear John, and pretty much cried my eyes out. Literally. Just had to start typing because I was so sad. I don't remember the last time I was sobbing like that. Good thing my friends weren't around to see me like that, lol. I really should stop watching those kind of movies. I must have been four since the last time my shoulders were shaking so much, and I did that weird cry breathing… thing… I don't really know what you call it. But anyways, lets try not to dwell on the sad stuff. Onto comment replies and Annabeth's sarcastic humor. **

**Who loves Marry You by Bruno Mars? Totally obsessed with it right now… Anyone?**

**Have to add this is too: I love my brother! I go into my room to find a chocolate bunny, flavored marshmallow fluff, and stickers lying on my bed. He knows me so well. =)**

I'mDifferent-GetOverIt **Well, that trip sounded… um… perhaps I shouldn't say. Someone tried to run away? Sheesh… And lol, no info needed. I have enough scarring from my own bus rides lol**

C-Nuggets N.L **Thank you! Mutated thumbs appreciated =P**

redlox2 **Lol, I can't wait either! I answer your replies before I actually type the chapter, so we'll just have to see O_o **

Cotex14 **Haha, I don't know, for some reason, I thought Annabeth wouldn't like apples. Maybe it's because I can't eat apples the way I want to anymore because of my braces. No more chomping on it. Now I have to cut it into little bite sized pieces. Sorry, mini rant on the annoyingness of braces =) Definitely read the Hunger Games, or at least the first two. I don't like the last one, but it's just my opinion. The first one is the best, definitely though. A great read. **

Rose L. Florintine **Haha, I couldn't resist adding that =P I just imagined Annabeth skipping through a field going slow-mo and was ROLF.**

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**K-I-S-S-I-N-G**

We got to Long Island just after Clarisse had arrived, courtesy of awesomely awesome centaur powers. I ended up riding a paint centaur dressed like a hippie, Ozzy Osborne glasses and all. I could tell Percy and Chiron were thinking about something, but I didn't ask. For some reason I didn't want to be part of it.

Our centaur buddies were dying to meet Mr. D, because they knew he through some wild parties. I didn't want to be the Debby Downer of the situation, so I didn't say the Lord Dionysus was about as much fun as a freaking sack of potatoes.

And Dionysus was in an even worse mood than ever. Trust me, that's saying something. The arts and crafts cabin had been burned to the ground by a Draco Aionius, a big bad lizard who likes to blow things up. It's kinda funny, because whenever I see that name, I think of Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter.

Anyways, a bunch of kids were hospitalized, aka, moaning in the Big House while the Apollo kids ran around trying to heal them. And maybe passing out in the process.

Everyone looked battered and sore as we crowded around Thalia's pine tree. I prayed silently to all the gods that this would work, that Thalia's spirit would live on and protect the camp.

As soon as Clarisse put the Fleece on one of the branches, the grass seemed greener, the moonlight stronger, and the pine needles healthier. We watched, breathless, as Thalia's pine tree healed, and the brown needles turned greener.

Yes! The campers cheered as the border to Camp Half-Blood became strong, and monsters were once again unable to penetrate camp.

Chiron ordered a guard twenty-four seven, until we could get another monster who could protect the Fleece and tree. I suggested the normal dragon. They were powerful, and I didn't fancy walking by the tree and get my pants on fire as a warning.

Clarisse was hefted onto the shoulders of the campers (Not an easy feat, you know) and brought down to the amphitheatre to celebrate. If you haven't been to a demigod celebration party, you haven't lived. It's like everyone's hopped up on Mr. D's private store of wine, spiked with fermented nectar. It's better than you think, actually. What? I totally didn't drink a lot of it. Maybe…

No one gave Percy and I any credit for finding the Fleece. I guess it was a good thing, since if they had said we got the Fleece, that meant they would have to admit we snuck out of camp, thereby expelling us. Still, though, I missed the glory of being one of the people who saved something important.

We celebrated late into the night, and the Stoll brothers ended up telling some ridiculously funny slash scary story about some demonic breakfast pastries eating an evil king.

I saw Clarisse sneak up to Percy and whisper something, probably along the lines of "Even if you did give me the Fleece, I'm still going to kill you in the end."

The party ponies left the next morning, to the dismay of the Hermes cabin, who had been studiously (For once) making notes on the best pranks invented by the crazy centaurs.

Chiron gave us a surprise, saying that the chariot races were back on, even though the horrible Tantalus was back in the depths of Tartarus where he belonged.

Percy and I agreed that we would team up, despite the disastrous fight we had last time. Tyson would be our right-hand man, err, Cyclops, and he would trick out the Athena chariot with a bunch of cool designs and armor.

The next two days flew by, and Percy and I agreed that he would drive, (I had issues with driving, ever since my dad let me drive his new Volvo. Long story short, I blew it up. With a bomb. By accident.) And I would fight off enemies. It was a pretty good deal. I was a better fighter, and lets face sometimes Percy could be a real backseat driver.

The day of the races came soon enough, and everyone was chattering about it. A few suspicious people thought the Stymphalian would re-appear, but I'm pretty sure Chiron's Dean Martin music scared them off. Forever. It could literally be used as a torture device. Even so, I told Chiron to bring his tape player and a copy of The Greatest Hits of Dean Martin. More like The Hits that only Boring Old People Listen To.

Tyson surprised at the track with javelins that had three buttons. One produced a hook in which you could knock away or hook onto other opponents. Another was a javelin to explode on impact, and cast out a netting wire to tangle up wheels. Finally, the last one produces a blunt spear head, so you could knock off people from their chariots. I liked that last one the best. Very satisfying. I should know, I tried it on Percy a few times, insisting I was "practicing." Heh, he is so gullible.

Tyson and Percy had a bro moment, you know, the "Your the best brother in the world, yadda, yadda, yadda, rainbows and unicorns and other gushy stuff."

I heard Chiron blow the horn that signaled the racers to go to the starting line.

"Percy, come on!" I yelled at him, and he ran over, jumping into the chariot just as Chiron blew the whistle.

We were off! (Okay, yeah, cliché, but it fit the scene, okay?)

We started off so fast, I had to grab the rail in order to not do those funny flipping in the air things as you fall, like you see on America's Funniest Home Videos.

We were sliding around the first turn a full length in front of the Ares cabin chariot, who was busy with a massive attack from the Hermes cabin. I recognized some of their tricks from the party ponies.

"We've got 'em!" said Percy, but it was too soon.

"Incoming!" I shouted as the Apollo chariot threw a weighted net that I deflected with my awesome ninja-like demigod skills. I was busy with trying to get rid of the net, and one of the Apollo kids threw a javelin into our wheel, not breaking it, thank the gods, but taking a few spokes off. Thankfully, though, the chariot kept going.

We were now neck and neck the Sun God chariot, and I could see the Hephaestus cabin starting to catch up from behind.

"You're mine!" shouted the driver of the Apollo chariot, and I recognized him as a first year.

I gave a sly grin. He was too cocky. It was time for some Annabeth medicine to put a certain someone back in their place.

"Yeah, right!" I shouted, and threw the javelined with the blunt spearhead, knocking both the driver and the fighter out. They did a backwards somersault, landing with an oomph on the ground. Oh yes, definitely an AFV video.

We rocketed ahead, our wheel screaming in protest, and we started the second lap. I was out of javelins, and the Hephaestus cabin was catching up. Crap.

Steel cables came rocketing toward us from Beckendorf's chariot, latching onto ours, and slowing us down, while they shortened the distance by pulling themselves up.

They had almost reached us when Percy yelled, "Switch with me! Take the reins!"

"But-" I stuttered. He knew full well about the whole driving thing.

"Trust me!"

I grabbed the reins and stepped forward, me steering the horses while Percy fought off Beckendorf's attack. A blade slashed right toward my head, and I let out a squeak as Percy's Riptide (Thankfully) blocked it.

We spun around the last turn, horses thundering toward the finish line.

"See ya, Percy! Here's a little parting gift!" shouted Beckendorf, and a little pouch flopped onto our deck.

"Greek fire!" I screamed. "Get rid of it!"

Percy tried, but he was still fighting off the Hephaestus attack, so I wouldn't be horribly injured, and had no way to flip it off.

Suddenly, Percy's hand slammed on his watch, (NO idea where that came from) and s freaking _shield _appeared. What the heck?

Beckendorf slammed his sword onto it, and the sword shattered. Percy pushed him with the shield, sending the Hephaestus son out of his chariot.

Percy kinda looked at the shield in awe, and I had to yell his name to get his attention back to the Greek fire about top blow up _right next to us._

Percy flipped it up from his sword like a pancake, and it fell right by the Hephaestus driver's foot. The driver, having good sense, leaped out of the chariot just before it blew up into a million little pieces.

We crossed the finish line, and as soon as the chariots stopped, we were mobbed by our friends, (mostly my siblings) and hefted onto shoulders.

Before this day ended though, I wanted to make something right. Tyson deserved some credit, especially after my prejudice against Cyclopes.

"Hold up! Listen! It wasn't just us!" I yelled until everyone quieted down. "We couldn't have done it without somebody else! We couldn't have won this race or gotten the Fleece or saved Grover or anything! We owe our lives to Tyson, Percy's..." I stopped, and waited for Percy to finish.

"Brother!" yelled Percy and I beamed. It was good he accepted Tyson so much, after the rough start. "Tyson, my baby brother!"

Well, I wouldn't call him baby...

Suddenly had a feeling inside my chest, and I don't know if it was from winning the chariot race, or everything I've been through this summer, but something possessed me, and I kissed Percy on the cheek. The crowd cheered louder after that.

I heard Macolm behind me saying, "Annabeth and Percy, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I- oomph!"

And that's what it felt like to be hit in the stomach with an Annabeth back-kick.

**This might be a little short because it DELETED itself when I was a page away from getting done. GRRR...**

**Hope you liked! **

**Bianca coming after a lunch break, so it should be in by today =)**

**Review!**


	20. I Should Stop Guessing

**Hola, my Fanfictioning peoples!**

**There's really nothing interesting going on in my life currently, so on with the review replies!**

Twilightstargazer **Why, yes, I plan to. =)**

Reading-and-Bubbling **Thanks for the recommendations! Your questions in order: I actually had Annabeth having a private talk with Malcolm, but my computer deleted like, five pages I had just written! I got annoyed. The reason I reply in my AN because it's easier then replying to every single one, going back and forth, back and forth. Plus, some of my reviewers aren't members. I wanted to add some OOC into Annabeth to make the story more interesting. Sorry about the errors, sometimes I miss them... And as for the updates, it pretty much sums up that I live in the middle of freaking nowhere. The closest theater is like, half hour away, and has only two different movie showing rooms. The closest mall is forty-five minutes away, so I end up home with nothing to do for a while. **

Cotix14 **Omg, me too! I was freaking out about the Percabeth thing! You can definitely get Hunger Games off Amazon, kindle addition and regular. **

Son of The Sea 100896 **Hmm, I have a feeling that you might be busy with finals. Just a guess though, =)**

Another Person Who Forgot To Sign Their Name **Haha, no prob, no prob!**

dayforall **Congratulations! You are the 200th reviewer! *confetti falls around you.****

PAYTON **I have the first PJO book on Annabeth's Side! Check it out! **

Devieant1 UK **Aw, thanks for the praise! And I loved our PM messages on the differences of America and England =)**

Me **Hey, long time, no review! Haha =)**

**The laaaast chapter! OMGOMGOMG! **

**Read, Review, and Favorite!**

**I Should Stop Guessing**

The next day seemed to be the best of my life. It started with a little "talk" with Malcolm after the whole chariot race incident.

"So, Malcolm, how's your day been?" asked casually, picking the dirt out from under my nails with my knife. We had just finished breakfast, and I had run to catch him before he left the Pavilion.

"Oh, uh, Annabeth… Hi!" he stuttered. "Um, wonderful?"

"That's great, that's great," I said in a sweet innocent voice. But do you mind restoring my memory? I seem to remember you saying something after the chariot race, but I can't quite remember what it was… Care to explain?"

"Oh, um… yeah, I remember saying something then. Wasn't it like, 'You won!' or something?"

"Not quite right," I murmured, sheathing my knife. Quick as lightning, I grabbed his arm, twisting it painfully behind him. I squished his face to the wall for good measure.

"Never forget, my little brother, that I am the Athena Camp Counselor. If you try that little trick again, I have the power to put you on bathroom duty for a month. I hear that Jacob was pranked by the Stoll brothers. Food poisoning. He hasn't left that bathroom in hours. I don't suppose you want to clean it up?" I whispered.

Malcolm let out a whimper.

"That's what I thought," I said smiling. I let him go, and started to jog off.

"Oh, and Malcolm," I said as I trotted away, "Keep an eye on your food. You never know when the Stoll brothers are up to no good." I winked at him and whisked off to my cabin, whistling happily.

Gods, being a demigod had its perks. You could threaten people without being arrested.

Later that day, Grover announced that he would stay the rest of the summer with our little mismatched group, and when camp ended, he would resume is quest for Pan.

In fact, the Council of Cloven Elders were so surprised that Grover hadn't gotten killed, they granted him two more months and a new set of reed pipes (To everyone's horror, might I add) and insisted on playing it. Every single second.

He played YMCA to the strawberry plants, and they had some kind of spaz attack, wrapping around everyone like they were getting some kind of revenge of making them listen to YMCA over and over and over again by someone who had no real musical talent. (No offense, Grover.)

Grover wanted to dissolve his empathy link with Percy, but Seaweed Brain insisted on keeping it, so they could keep track of each other. Which, in a way was smart, since they both had the tendency to get into bad situations. By bad, I mean horrible, I'm about to die situations. Grover agreed this was best.

Grover and I were walking to dinner when Chiron stopped us along the way.

"Annabeth, Grover, I need a second of your time," he said. "Tyson is leaving today. Lord Poseidon offered him an internship in the forges. I think young Percy might want the comfort of friends."

"Sure, Chiron," said Grover. "Where is he?"

"If my sources are correct, he should be on the beach."

Grover and I walked to the beach, and after about five minutes of pointless searching, we finally found him staring out into the ocean.

"Hey, Percy," I called.

He turned, and I noticed the wetness gathering in his eyes. Now normally, if I had the chance to tease Percy relentlessly for crying, I would totally take it. In fact, I would probably tease him about it the rest of the summer.

But this time was different. Percy blinked his eyes rapidly to hide his sadness, and my heart reached out to him.

"Tyson…" said Percy, his voice shaking. "He had to…"

"We know," I comforted him. "Chiron told us."

"Cyclopes forges," said Grover, shivering. I hear the cafeteria food there is terrible. Like, no enchiladas at all!"

Of course, for Grover, everything came back to his stomach.

I rolled my eyes and held out my hand. "Come on, Seaweed Brain. Time for dinner."

The three of us walked together, just like old times, back to the Pavilion.

After dinner, I was in charge of guarding the Fleece along with Kalen Griffin from the Apollo cabin until midnight.

We were having an… er… interesting conversation about who would win in a fight. Pretty much, I was sure that Taylor from the Aphrodite cabin could beat the crap out of Justin Bieber if she wasn't totally obsessed with him. Take it like this. She has a lock of his hair. No one can figure out where she got it from, since she was a year-round camper. Most of us didn't want to know.

Suddenly a flash of bright light appeared around me, and there was someone lying on the ground.

What the heck? Some random person just appeared, unconscious, in front of me. And I thought the surprises were done for the summer. I reached out to turn the person over when my heart froze.

That hair. The armor. Could it…

"Kalen! Get Chiron! Now!" I yelled.

"What about the Fle-"

"Now!"

He raced off and I turned the girl over.

My breath caught. It was her. It was her. It was her. That was all that was in my mind.

Her. Her. Her.

"Come on, Thalia, wake up. Remember me? I-It's Annabeth."

My voice was shaking, and my eyesight started to go blurry.

"Thalia. Thalia, open your eyes. Please!" I pleaded.

I vaguely realized people beginning to congregate around me and looked up, tears streaming down my face.

Chiron and Percy stood before me, surrounded by other campers. I stood up, running to Chiron.

"It… She… just suddenly there," I sobbed.

Percy ran to Thalia, kneeling beside her.

"Percy, wait!" called Chiron, but to no avail.

"It's true," breathed Grover. "I can't believe…"

Percy touched his hand to her forehead, wincing slightly, probably Thalia shocking him. Literally.

She needs nectar and ambrosia," he said, but everyone was too shocked to do anything.

Percy propped the unconscious girl up by leaning her onto his shoulder while he looked around angrily.

Come on!" he yelled to everyone. What's wrong with you people? Let's get her to the Big House."

Not even Chiron moved an inch. Everyone just stared.

Thalia started to cough, and opened her eyes, shocking blue that made me tear up. They were the color of my adopted sister.

Thalia looked at Percy in shock. "Who-"

"I'm Percy," he said. "You're safe now."

"Strangest dream…" she murmured, looking dizzy.

"It's okay," he assured her.

"Dying," she mumbled.

"No, you're okay. What's your name?"

"I'm Thalia, daughter of Zeus."

And that's when the dramatic music should have come in.

**Okay, okay, I had to put the Justin Bieber joke in. I have no personal preference about him, but it was just the perfect moment for something like that!**

**Vote on my next FF I wanna do a couple story and leaning toward a Silena/Beckendorf fanfic. What do you think! Vote now!**

**And, I'm actually very sorry about this, but no new story until after I graduate and my weeklong camp! I really need a vacation, and I have a bunch of stuff on my plate, so please forgive me! I'll add Bianca chapters periodically, but nothing on schedule! Once again, sorry! Maybe, just maybe, I'll get bored and start the first chapter.**

**Well, second book done! Yay! I love you all for following me through all this! I hope you liked the book! Luv you all!**

**Peace out 'till later!**

**Kittycat32**

**Review!**


	21. Thanks For Your Support!

**Hiya guys!**

**Finished Sea of Monsters! Who thinks it was awesome! Cuz I personally loved it. Tell me tell me tell me!**

**Quick answer to the many people who didn't read my last A/N: ****READ THIS!**

**I will NOT be doing The Titan's Curse until after I graduate and have my week-long camp, so it will probably start somewhere between the end of June and beginning of July.**

**Also, Bianca is going to be irregular, but there will be updates, probably on the weekend, until it's finished. I have, I think, five chapters to go before the finale.**

**ALSO! READ THIS!**** You, my wonderful Fanfictioners are able to pick my new FF PJO story! I have a poll on my Profile Page, giving you a list of options to choose from. Only members of the site, sorry. Don't know how to fix that. It WILL be a couple story, and I'm leaning toward a Silena/Beckendorf fanfic, but so far, A Percy/Annabeth- In The Future is winning. I don't know how long into the future, but I'm thinking senior year? What do you guys think? ****Vote now!**

**Review Replies:**

theoriginalchichedlostsoul **Haha, I was feeling devilish that day }:-)**

C-Nuggets N. L **Kinda sorta. She's under the rock, so there won't be many chapters on her, mostly Thalia. But yes, I will add in some Percabeth moments. **

Deviant1 UK **Lol, I totally know what you mean. Top likes are always about girls doing something BA haha. And don't worry, most of my friends are immature, but that's why I love them! You don't know what graduating is? You know, like, when you get your diploma and go on to new and better places? A whole boring three hour ceremony with a bunch of people giving speeches? Hehe**

Son of The Sea 100896 **Haha, intuition! Lol what's JAVA? Like that java computer program that looks like a cup of coffee? Hehe**

I'mDifferent-GetOverIt **Yes! Sadly only the first book. My empty purse is sadly the cause of that one lol.**

Me **Haha, no killing nessessary, please! I prefer my heart beating strong. After all, who else could continue the Annabeth Side series?**

Cotix14 **Aww, thanks! You have no idea how much that means to me!**

**And so, The Sea of Monsters, ends, but starts a new beginning.**

**You may want to Author Alert me for the next book, because I don't know exactly when I'm starting it! **

**Oh, and by the way. You may want to be on FF on the fourth of July. Something special and totally awesome my just appear. **wink wink****

**Have a good few weeks! See you all in the sometime future! Buh bye!**

**Kittycat32**

**P.S. Can't wait to turn this story into a complete one! **


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